§1.1 The objectives of the UCTD

The UCTD aims at approximating national laws in order to raise the level of protection of consumers against unfair not individually negotiated terms in contracts concluded between a seller or supplier and a consumer. Therefore, the UCTD has a double objective: — the effective protection of consumers as the typically weaker party against unfair contract terms which are used by sellers or suppliers and have not been individually negotiated, and — contributing to the establishment of the Internal Market through the minimum harmonisation of the national rules aiming at this protection. The Court (11) has emphasised the role of the UCTD in connection with the overall objectives of the EU when stating that ‘[…] [i]t should also be noted that, according to the Court's case-law, that directive as a whole constitutes, in accordance with Article 3(1)(t) EC, a measure which is essential to the accomplishment of the tasks entrusted to the European Community and, in particular, to raising the standard of living and the quality of life throughout the Community […] (12).’ In that connection, the Court has repeatedly qualified protection under the UCTD as a matter of ‘public interest’ (13). As expressed in Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) (14), the legal basis for the UCTD, as well as in Article 169 TFEU and in Article 38 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (15), the UCTD provides for a high level of consumer protection. According to the settled case law of the Court (16), the system of protection introduced by Directive 93/13/EEC is based on ‘[…] the idea […] that the consumer is in a weak position vis-à-vis the seller or supplier, as regards both his bargaining power and his level of knowledge, which leads to the consumer agreeing to terms drawn up in advance by the seller or supplier without being able to influence the content of those terms[…].’ The UCTD thus aims to address situations of inequality of the parties in relation to contract terms, which can be due to an asymmetry of information or expertise (17) or bargaining power (18) in relation to the contract terms. In particular, through the non-binding character of unfair contract terms under Article 6(1) the UCTD aims to create an effective balance (19) between the parties under the contract, by removing the imbalance created by unfair contract terms (20), in order to compensate for the weaker position of consumers (21). Furthermore, the UCTD aims to deter sellers or suppliers from using unfair terms in the future (22). The Commission recalls that in its 2000 report (23) on the implementation of the UCTD, it stressed the harmful effects of the use of unfair contract terms for the legal and economic order of the EU as a whole and underlined the significance of the UCTD beyond the protection of individual consumers directly affected by unfair contract terms.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07