§5.11.6 Contracts with a specific date or period of performance

Article 16 (l) the provision of accommodation other than for residential purpose, transport of goods, car rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance; For this exception to apply, the contract should stipulate ‘a specific date or period of performance’. Again, since this is an exception, it should be interpreted narrowly (143). It should therefore be applied bearing in mind the reasons given in Recital 49: ’[…] The granting of a right of withdrawal to the consumer could also be inappropriate in the case of certain services where the conclusion of the contract implies the setting aside of capacity which, if a right of withdrawal were exercised, the trader may find difficult to fill. This would for example be the case where reservations are made at hotels or concerning holiday cottages or cultural or sporting events.’ Therefore, the restriction on the right of withdrawal under point (l) of the first paragraph of Article 16 should not apply to contracts for leisure activities that do not have a capacity limitation. Recital 49 gives the following examples where the exception under point (l) of the first paragraph of Article 16 would apply: — bookings at hotels and holiday cottages; — cultural or sporting events, as well as theatre performances on a specific date; — catering at a birthday or wedding party on a specific date. Similarly, the phrase ‘transport of goods’ should be interpreted broadly. In case C-336/03 easyCar concerning the Distance Selling Directive 97/7/EC the CJEU ruled that ‘transport’ also includes making the means of transport available to the consumer (144). According to that interpretation, the rental of trucks for the carriage of goods on a specific date could fall within the scope of the exception provided in point (l) of the first paragraph of Article 16 for the ‘transport of goods’. Finally, although point (l) of the first paragraph of Article 16 covers contracts for the transport of goods, it would not apply to storage services, even where they are provided on specific dates.

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