§3.3.2 Transparency requirements stemming from other EU acts

Various EU acts regulate in a detailed fashion the pre-contractual information that traders have to provide to consumers in general or with regard to specific kinds of contracts. Examples include the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (193), the Consumer Rights Directive (194), the Consumer Credit Directive (195), the Mortgage Credit Directive (196), the Package Travel Directive (197), the European Electronic Communications Code (198), Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 on air services (199) and Directives 2009/72/EC (200) and 2009/73/EC (201) concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity natural gas. Such acts may also regulate the compulsory content of the relevant contracts (202) and contain rules on the admissibility of contract changes and their transparency (203). The UCTD is without prejudice to such provisions and the consequences of the failure to comply with them as set out in such specific instruments (204). Insofar as specific pre-contractual and contractual information requirements apply, they will also have to be taken into account for the transparency requirements under the UCTD, on a case-by-case basis, and in light of the purpose and scope of those instruments. Thus, for instance, in relation to EU consumer credit legislation (205), the Court has stressed the importance of borrowers having to hand in all information which could have a bearing on the extent of their liability (206) and, thereby, of presenting the total cost of the credit in the form of a single mathematical formula (207). Therefore, the failure to indicate the annual percentage rate of charge (APR) as required under EU consumer credit rules (208) is ‘decisive evidence’ as to whether the term of the agreement relating to the total cost of the credit is drafted in plain intelligible language. This is true also where the necessary information on the calculation of the APR is not provided (209). The same must apply if the indicated APR is erroneous or misleading. If the information on the total cost of the loan required under EU consumer credit rules is not provided or if the indication is misleading, the relevant terms will, therefore, be deemed not to be plain and intelligible. As regards mortgage credit contracts with consumers, all the rulings so far handed down by the Court related to contracts concluded before the entry into application of Directive 2014/17/EU (210) on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential property. For this reason, the Court has not yet ruled on the relationship between specific information requirements under Directive 2014/17/EU and the transparency requirements under the UCTD. Directive 2014/17/EU imposes high transparency standards by requiring clear and comprehensible general information about credit agreements to be made available to consumers through the European Standardized Information Sheet (ESIS) and the calculation of the Annual Percentage Rate of Charge (APR). In relation to foreign currency loans, Article 23(6) of Directive 2014/17/EU requires that creditors and intermediaries disclose to the consumer, in the ESIS and in the credit agreement, the arrangements available for him/her to limit exposure to the exchange rate risk during the lifetime of the credit. Where there is no provision in the credit agreement to limit the exchange rate risk to which the consumer is exposed to a fluctuation of less than 20 %, the ESIS shall include an illustrative example of the impact of a 20 % fluctuation in the exchange rate. The Court has applied (211) transparency requirements stemming from Directive 2003/55/EC (212) concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and the UCTD in a complementary fashion. The fact of whether a seller or supplier has complied with sector-specific requirements is an important element when assessing compliance with the transparency requirements under the UCTD. However, given the parallel applicability of the UCTD with sectorial legislation, compliance with such instruments does not automatically indicate compliance with all transparency requirements under the UCTD. Furthermore, the fact that a specific act does not contain specific information requirements does not exclude information obligations under the UCTD on contract terms that sellers or suppliers add on their own initiative.

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