§4.2.4 Contracts concluded over means of distance communication with limited space or time

Article 8(4) deals with means of distance communication allowing limited time or space to display the information: Article 8 4. If the contract is concluded through a means of distance communication which allows limited space or time to display the information, the trader shall provide, on or through that particular means prior to the conclusion of such a contract, at least the pre-contractual information regarding the main characteristics of the goods or services, the identity of the trader, the total price, the right of withdrawal, the duration of the contract and, if the contract is of indeterminate duration, the conditions for terminating the contract, as referred to, respectively, in points (a), (b), (e), (h) and (o) of Article 6(1) except the model withdrawal form set out in Annex I(B) referred to in point (h). The other information referred to in Article 6(1), including the model withdrawal form, shall be provided by the trader to the consumer in an appropriate way in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article.’;. Accordingly, Article 8(4) includes the same information requirements as Article 8(2), to which it adds information about: (1) the identity of the trader as referred to in Article 6(1)(b); (2) the right of withdrawal as referred to in Article 6(1)(h), i.e., information about the conditions, time limit and procedures for exercising this right. Article 8(4) does not include the requirement under Article 6(1)(p) to provide information about ‘the minimum duration of the consumer’s obligations under the contract’. However, as is explained earlier in section 3.2.7, any such minimum period is also one of the major conditions for terminating a contract of indeterminate duration or an automatically extended contract under Article 6(1)(o). Therefore, in practice, this information element should also be covered by Article 8(4). Article 8(4) applies to contracts concluded using technologies such as over the telephone, via voice operated shopping assistants, by SMS, or by other means of distance communication which impose technical limits on the amount of information that can be presented to the consumer (114). In such situations, the Directive allows the trader to provide the consumer with a more limited range of information elements before the distance contract is concluded, whilst the other information required by Article 6(1) must be provided by another source in plain and intelligible language. (see also Recital 36, which refers to ‘providing a toll free telephone number or a hypertext link to a webpage’). Directive (EU) 2019/2161 amended Article 8(4) of the CRD excluding from the information obligations the obligation to provide the model withdrawal form, set out in Annex I(B). Accordingly, the communication of that form by another source, in plain and intelligible language, suffices (115). After the contract is concluded, complete information should be included in the confirmation of the contract provided on a durable medium according to Article 8(7). The Court dealt with the application of Article 8(4) in case C-430/17 Walbusch Walter Busch, which was related to distance sales via mail order (purchase order coupon distributed via newspapers and magazines). The Court decided that the ‘assessment of whether, in a specific case, the means of communication allows limited space or time to display the information, in accordance with Article 8(4), must be carried out having regard to all of the technical features of the trader’s marketing communication. In that regard, it is necessary to ascertain whether, taking into account the space and time occupied by the communication and the minimum size of the typeface which is appropriate for the average consumer targeted by that communication, all the information set out in Article 6(1) of CRD may objectively be displayed within that communication. In contrast, ‘ the choices made by the trader concerned regarding the development and use of the space and time at its disposal as a result of the means of communication which it decided to use are not relevant for the purposes of that [assessment]’ (116). In practical terms, ‘the means of distance communication which allows limited space or time’ referred to in Article 8(4) are those that do not allow for layered provision of information (via, for example, expandable headings or hyperlinks, directing consumers to a more detailed presentation of the relevant information) – see in this respect section 3.1.1 concerning the provision of consumer information in clear and comprehensible manner. Smartphones do not qualify as ‘means of distance communication which allows limited space or time to display the information’, since additional information can always be provided also to users of such screens via expanding content trees or additional pages. Where the trader has customised the content and presentation of the online interface for such devices, it can use Article 8(4) and the related case law as guideline for selecting information that should be provided most prominently. In these cases, the trader can focus on the information elements required by Article 8(4), where appropriate in an expandable (117) format, and provide the rest of the mandatory information via additional pages.

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