| Abstract [eng] |
One of the Consumer protection policy aspects are consumer‘s protection from the unfair terms in consumer contracts. On the European Union level unfair terms in consumer contracts are regulated by the Council directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts. According to this directive, there can be drawn several criteria, which are important in determining whether the term is unfair – the term was not individually negotiated, it is in breach of good faith and causes significant imbalance in the parties‘ the rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer. These are the general unfairness criteria. According to the directive 93/13/EEC the term would be not individually negotiated if the consumer has not been able to influence the substance of the term. The meaning of the requirement of good faith and significant imbalance are not given in the directive 93/13/EEC, therefore it should be explained by the courts in individual cases. In addition, the illustrative list of the unfair terms in the annex of the directive 93/13/EEC plays the role of the guide to the courts investigating whether the term in consumer contract can be considered as unfair. Moreover, the transparency requirement is included in the directive 93/13/EEC. Written contract terms should be formulated in such a plain and intelligible language, that the consumer would be able to understand them without the help of another person. This requirement bears not only the substance of the contract, formulation of the sentences or the meaning of the words, but also the outlook of the contract. Lithuania, implementing the directive 93/13/EEC into the Civil code, has not transposed several provisions that are important to the protection of the consumers – the requirement of good faith and the requirement that written contract terms should be put in plain and intelligible language. On the other side, the black list of unfair terms in the article 6.188 of the Civil code leads to the greater protection of the consumer than the grey list put in the annex of the directive 93/13/EEC. |
