11. Unfair terms in consumer contracts

Abstract

This chapter addresses the Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts and its implementing legislation: the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The legislation is of broad application to unfair terms in consumer contracts. The fairness test, with its reference to good faith, and significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties, is considered. The ‘core exemption’, from the fairness test, of price terms and those dealing with the main subject matter of the contract is looked at. The tensions in the different approaches to ‘core exemption’ in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in Abbey National, and the different emphases on freedom of contract, and protection of the weaker party, are highlighted.