§5.10 Ancillary contracts

Article 15 1. Without prejudice to Article 15 of Directive 2008/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on credit agreements for consumers, if the consumer exercises his right of withdrawal from a distance or an off- premises contract in accordance with Articles 9 to 14 of this Directive, any ancillary contracts shall be automatically terminated, without any costs for the consumer, except as provided for in Article 13(2) and in Article 14 of this Directive. 2. The Member States shall lay down detailed rules on the termination of such contracts. Article 2(15) defines an ancillary contract as: ‘a contract by which the consumer acquires goods or services related to a distance contract or an off-premises contract and where those goods are supplied or those services are provided by the trader or a third party on the basis of an arrangement between that third party and the trader’, for example: — a delivery, maintenance or installation contract, — an insurance and credit agreement to finance the purchase; — additional commercial guarantee. Although generally excluded from the scope of application of the Directive by virtue of Article 3(3)(d), any ancillary insurance and credit contracts would be terminated in accordance with Article 15. The relationship between the separate linked contracts should be assessed to determine which is the main contract and which is the ancillary one: — For example, where, through separate contracts with the same trader, a consumer purchases mobile telephony services and a mobile smartphone that is paid in instalments, invoiced on a monthly basis together with the main subscription price, the service contract should be regarded as the main contract. This should not prevent the consumer from withdrawing separately only from the ancillary sales contract while keeping the service contract. Where the ancillary contract is subject to the Directive (for example, a contract for delivery or installation), the consumer should compensate the trader for the cost of what has been provided in accordance with Articles 13(2) and 14. On the other hand, if the ancillary contract is generally outside the scope of the Directive (such as an insurance or credit contract), the consequences of the termination will be subject to the sector-specific or general contract law rules of the Member States. The detailed rules on the termination of ancillary contracts are to be laid down by Member States. These may include, for example, the trader’s obligation to inform any other relevant trader when it is informed by a consumer of the consumer’s decision to withdraw from the main contract.

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