Abusive Clauses Research Articles

AS ENTRELINHAS DO CONTRATO BANCÁRIO: UMA ANÁLISE DOS RISCOS DE TAXAS ABUSIVAS

This study aimed to analyze, through a bibliographic review, the legislative framework ruling banking contracts in Brazil, highlighting the inconsistencies stemming from abusive fees and onerous clauses in banking operations. In Brazil, the definitions of abusive clauses in contracts are determined by the Civil Code and the Consumer Defense Code, under which agencies such as the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), the Delegacia do Consumidor and PROCON operate to uphold the principle of good faith. It was concluded that the imposition of a series of contractual parameters inaccessible to borrowers by financial institutions generates inequities and disparities in treatment that are incompatible with the economic order. The research might provide preventive and protective precautions to consumers confronted with banking contracts, this way assisting at the divulgation of secure economic practices and avoiding the overcrowding of the Judiciary with processes entailed by leonine clauses and abusive fees.

Correction: A support system for the detection of abusive clauses in B2C contracts

Correction: A support system for the detection of abusive clauses in B2C contracts

A support system for the detection of abusive clauses in B2C contracts

AbstractMany countries employ systemic methods of protecting consumers from unfair business practices. One such practice is the use of abusive clauses in business-to-consumer (B2C) contracts, which unfairly impose additional obligations on the consumer or deprive them of their due rights. This article presents an information system that utilizes artificial intelligence methods to automate contract analysis and to detect abusive clauses. The goal of the system is to support the entire administrative process, from contract acquisition, through text extraction and the recommendation of potentially abusive clauses, to the generation of official administrative documents that can be sent to court or to the owners of firms. This article focuses on on the components that use machine learning methods. The first is an intelligent crawler that is responsible for automatically detecting contract templates on websites and retrieving them into the system. The second is a document analysis module that implements a clause recommendation algorithm. The algorithm employs transformer-based language models and information retrieval methods to identify abusive passages in text. Our solution achieved first place in a competition on the automatic analysis of B2C contracts organized by the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), and has since been implemented as an official tool to support the contract analysis process in Poland.

Effects of the CJEU decision in case C-520/21 on consumer compensation for damages caused by abusive clauses used in bank credit contracts

After the pronouncement of the Decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-520/21, we can observe evolution of the conditions and the ways in which the restoration to the situation prior to the cancellation of the abusive clauses in the bank loan contract with the consumers is carried out, as well as the ways in which it is carried out compensation for damage caused by the professional’s use of abusive clauses.The purpose of this article is to document the scope of these changes in the eventuality of harmonizing national legislation to update legal protection for consumer rights, regarding the effects of this decision regarding the ,,nullity of protection” and from the perspective of the effects of this decision regarding the right of the parties to the credit agreement to request damages in the event of the cancellation of the credit agreement.

Novation as a remedy against abusive clauses of bank credit contracts

The purpose of this article is to research the possibility of the legal institution applying the novation regarding the abusive clauses in the bank credit contracts to save the bank contract in cases where the declaration of the abusive nature of the essential clauses could lead to the total ineffectiveness of the credit contract. Also, through this article, we propose to research whether or not, in relation to the rules applicable to novation, there are impediments to the novation of obligations stemming from abusive clauses, under the conditions in which they are considered null and void and whether there is a possibility that the initiation of steps to achieve the novation may not have a freely consenting character.

CJEU case law on CHF loans the most important issues still awaiting for the decision (limitation of claims, remuneration for the usage of capital)

The Unfair Contract Terms Directive and provisions of the national law which implement that legal act realize a system of consumer protection against the usage of abusive clauses in contracts concluded by consumers and professionals. The large set of case law provided by the CJEU makes it possible to clarify the principles and scope of the consumers protection. However, it is not comprehensive, as there are still important legal issues that have not been yet resolved by the CJEUs judgements. They concern, in particular, such important issues for borrowers as determining the beginning of the limitation period for claims of the parties to the contract, as well as assessing the legitimacy of the lenders' claims for payment of remuneration for the use of the capital of the loan, which had been paid on the basis of a contract which has been declared void. That issues are addressed by references in preliminary ruling proceedings, currently conducted before the CJEU on the basis of questions submitted by Polish courts, in cases concerning borrowers. Examination of these questions leads to the conclusion, that the Court probably will take a pro-consumer position on these key issues, consistently advocating for the broad protection of the weaker party to the contract.

Economic Imbalances Caused By the Abuse of Some Clauses Inserted in Credit Contracts

Abstract Credit agreements are membership contracts. Sometimes, within these types of contracts, significant imbalances can occur caused by the insertion of abusive clauses in the credit agreements. Significant imbalances are of an economic nature, created in order for professionals to obtain economic benefits in a manner that is contrary to good faith. The finding of abusive clauses is made “in concrete” only by the court. Once these abusive clauses have been found by the court, the abusive clauses can follow two variants of solutions, respectively: a). Within the contract they may be replaced by other clauses and b). they can be completely removed from bank credit agreements. In the first variant, the abusive clauses will be replaced with other clauses that will have as objective, the correction of the significant imbalances and the assurance of the balance of the credit agreements. In the second variant, the abusive clauses are struck by nullity and can sometimes have major consequences, materialized even in the cancellation of the entire credit agreement. The adopted solution will be based on the concrete situation of each case. The practice further proves the existence of these abusive clauses in one form or another, in credit agreements.

Consumer Protection in Peru: Origins, Evolution, and Main Regulatory Influences.

In the following text, the authors address the origins and evolution of consumer protection in Peru, as well as highlighting the main regulatory influences of the current 2010 Consumer Protection and Defence Code with regard to consumer sales (defective products), and the regime of abusive clauses, to which is added a reference to protection of personal data.

Extending the group of entities entitled to benefit from special consumer protection

The article aims to analyze and evaluate the last amendment of the Civil Code by which articles 3855, 5564, 5765 enter into force. These regulations are expanding the group of entities entitled to consumer protection. New provisions, by the intention of the legislator, are to provide entrepreneurs who are natural persons concluding contracts with entrepreneurs with the stronger market position the same protection as provided for consumers in the scope of the use of abusive clauses, warranty for defects and the right to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract. The introduced regulation raises some theoretical and practical doubts. They result from the unclear terms used by the legislator and from giving decisive importance to the data contained in CEIDG when qualifying contracts in terms of their professional nature.

Legal Effects of Unenforceability or Invalidity of an Agreement for a Denominated in or Indexed to a Foreign Currency Mortgage Loan in The Light of Judicial Decisions

An introduction of mortgage currency loans to the banks offers, particularly the indexed to a foreign currency and denominated in a foreign currency loans, based on agreements containing abusive clauses which lead, in the consumer/borrower's individual relations, to the violation of his legal and economic interest and on the financial system level to the creation the risk of its instability (systemic risk). In many European countries, in Hungary for instance, the problem was solved ex post on the statutory level by the legislator’s interference. In others, for example in Romania, such statutory solutions were contested by the constitutional courts. In the remaining ones, such as Poland, Spain or Austria, the problem was left to be solved within the individual cases by the civil or arbitration courts. The latter solution requires however the development of lines of jurisprudence solving the contentious legal issues resulting from the complicated legal relations that occurred between the banks and the consumers/borrowers. Given the above, the author undertook to analyse the judicial decisions of the European Court of Justice, Polish common courts and the Supreme Court in order to indicate these nodal issues which often evoke the discrepancies in jurisprudence, as well as to present the possible solutions. The importance of the issue is crucial not only to the economic condition of the households and financial results of particular banks, but also to the stability of the whole financial sector. The implementation of the research goal adopted in this article requires the application of legal research methods, such as in particular the general theoretical method and the formal-dogmatic method.

Theoretical and Practical Aspects Regarding the Cancellation of Abuse Clauses

Abstract Interest and commissions are important sources of revenue for credit institutions. Among the causes generating abusive clauses are the interest, interest rates and commissions charged to loans to customers by creditors. Theory and practice have shown that these abusive clauses are unlimited. Effective knowledge of abusive clauses is only one of the customer protection measures. Of course, only their knowledge does not completely solve the problem, but will determine the orientation of creditors in finding more subtle abusive clauses. From a multidisciplinary perspective, the Study is structured in two parts: Part I, follows aspects of concrete identification of the types of sources of abusive clauses on a specified case and Part II materializes in the technical-applicative presentation of the methods used to quantify the differences in the amounts paid by the client in addition, generated by the existence of abusive clauses in the credit agreement he concluded with the creditor. The results of the first part confirm: Hypothesis 1, regarding the existence of abusive clauses in the investigated case; Hypothesis 2, regarding the identification of the sources generating abusive clauses that materialize in the interest rate, interest and bank fees; Hypothesis3, referring to the analytical grouping by types of the sources causing abusive clauses.

Nulidad de cláusulas abusivas en reservas, promesas de compraventa y compraventas suscritas por consumidores de viviendas comercializadas en verde

Este trabajo analiza la sentencia dictada en Sernac con Socovesa S.A., y otra (2020) que se pronuncia sobre una demanda deducida para la defensa del interés colectivo de los consumidores en virtud del procedimiento especial establecido en el art. 53 del título iv de la LPDC. La acción se funda en las distintas cláusulas abusivas que las demandadas mantienen en los contratos de adhesión que suelen celebrar con los consumidores durante el proceso de compra de una vivienda en verde; estos son la reserva para la operación de compra de la vivienda, el contrato de promesa de compraventa y el contrato de compraventa con mutuo hipotecario. El estudio se centra, específicamente, en las pretensiones relativas a la declaración de nulidad de ciertas cláusulas que fueron rechazadas en la sentencia de primera instancia que fue confirmada por la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago. En consecuencia, reflexiona sobre la naturaleza de las reservas como contrato de adhesión, sobre la interpretación del art. 138 bis de la LGUC a la luz del derecho de consumo y también, sobre el objeto de las cláusulas de conformidad.

Z problematyki racjonalizacji ograniczeń swobody kontraktowej w zamówieniach publicznych

Swoboda kontraktowa obowiązuje w zamówieniach publicznych pomimo licznych ograniczeń. Dominują ograniczenia ustawowe, charakterystyczne dla parametrycznego sterowa-nia gospodarką, natomiast indywidualna ingerencja administracyjna ma znaczenie drugoplanowe. W zakresie wyboru typu umowy ograniczenia są sporadyczne, ponieważ ustawa nie przesądza o tym, kiedy i jakich zamówień mogą udzielać jednostki sektora publicznego. Także przedsiębiorcy ubiegają się o poszczególne zamówienia na zasadzie dobrowolności. Zakaz transakcji bezpośred-nich uzasadnia jednak dotkliwą pod względem biurokratycznym reglamentację procedur udzielania zamówień publicznych, choć wola stron ma tu znaczenie podstawowe, zwłaszcza przy konstru-owaniu warunków proceduralnych, a ustawa działa jedynie uzupełniająco. Równie uciążliwe są ograniczenia swobodnego kształtowania treści umowy. Wzrasta zastosowanie klauzul obligatoryj-nych, wymuszonych ustawowo, coraz bardziej rygorystyczne są normatywne zasady wykonywania zamówień publicznych, uzasadnione potrzebą wzmożonej ochrony interesu publicznego. Panująca w pozostałym zakresie swoboda nierzadko bywa nadużywana przez zamawiającego, który zawcza-su projektuje postanowienia umowy. Dlatego istotne znaczenie praktyczne ma unormowana ostat-nio możność zwalczania klauzul abuzywnych w trybie odwoławczym. Jednocześnie, wzmacniając zasadę realnego wykonania zamówienia wykluczającą możnością obchodzenia wyników przetar-gu, wprowadzono zakaz dokonywania istotnych zmian w umowach o zamówienia publiczne oraz przedwczesnego ich rozwiązywania. Niedogodności formalne i biurokratyczne łagodzić ma postę-pująca informatyzacja zamówień publicznych.

Claiming the nullity of a substantive right in the levy of execution. The issue of unfair and unwritten terms

Abstract The present study aims at the extended interpretation of the legislative reformulation of the article 713 paragraph (2) Criminal Procedure Code through the Law no. 310/2018 on the amendments the Code of Civil Procedure, with emphasis on the possibility and, in concreto, on the admissibility to claim the nullity of the substantive law (also in respect of unfair or unwritten terms), but also other causes of ineffectiveness of the legal act constituting enforceable title, other than a court judgement. The problem of interpretation was generated by the addition of the phrase „including a common law action” at the end of the legal text which allows to invoke some de facto or de jure reasons relating to the substance of the law, in the levy of execution regarding another writ of execution than a court judgement, as long as the law does not provide another procedural way to annul it. The notion of “procedural action” being chosen and the identification of the action “of general jurisdiction” are going to generate non-unitary practice, so we opted for their explanation, but the present study aims mainly to argue that the legislative amendment does not affect however, the possibility to claim, in the levy of execution, of some causes of ineffectiveness of the legal act representing the enforceable title, such as absolute or relative nullity (total or partial) of general jurisdiction, but also when it is determined by the identification of unfair terms or terms deemed as unwritten, but also the possibility to claim the exception of non-execution of the contract, along with other permitted defences (legal compensation, statute of limitation, force majeure, causes of extinction of the claim, etc.). In particular, in the area of abusive clauses, although the debtor has the right to an action of general jurisdiction, the national judge will not be able to allow the inadmissibly of their claim by way of the levy of execution. The conclusions of the study are of the utmost importance and can contribute to the standardization of the judicial practice and, in terms of abusive clauses, to its harmonization with the jurisprudence of the C.J.E.U. (Court of Justice of the European Union).

Criterios orientadores de la incorporación de condiciones generales en los contratos financieros y la tutela del consumidor peruano

Este artículo busca identificar los criterios aplicados por la autoridad administrativa que determinan la incorporación de condiciones generales en los contratos financieros celebrados con consumidores. La aprobación administrativa previa del condicionado general se orienta a minimizar los riesgos de inclusión de cláusulas abusivas y a restablecer el equilibrio contractual. Se utiliza una metodología hermenéutico-sintética para la interpretación y el análisis de las resoluciones administrativas emitidas por la autoridad competente. El desarrollo de la investigación arroja que la multiplicidad de criterios jurisprudenciales aplicados a diferentes contratos sujetos a supervisión denota la necesidad de sistematizarlos a fin de garantizar la predictibilidad tanto para el administrado como para el órgano administrativo.

SOME ABNORMALITIES RELATED TO THE REAL ESTATE MARKET

Transactions concluded as part of the real estate market, which is closely tied to business trading, are connected with a number of threats. An important reason for numerous pathologies occurring in this area is the significant number of transactions made. The purpose of this study is to present selected abnormalities connected with the real estate market in the context of criminology, criminal law regulations, and civil law. The appearance of abusive clauses finding their way into agreements closing real estate deals will be addressed. Due to the fact that the real estate market is replete with transactions and irregularities associated with them, this study will only deal with those irregularities which, according to the author, are the most frequent and widespread.

El estilo inglés de control preventivo de cláusulas abusivas

Este trabajo plantea que la forma en que el sistema inglés ha implementado el control de cláusulas abusivas es una experiencia que se debería mirar si, haciendo microcomparación, se busca construir una propuesta que mejore nuestro respectivo sistema interno. Diversas razones apoyan esta afirmación. A continuación, se parte explicando por qué resulta recomendable mirar cómo los ingleses han controlado preventivamente cláusulas abusivas y se describe cómo ha funcionado este control aludiendo, además, a algunos de sus resultados. Lo anterior se logra a través de un análisis del trabajo que la Office of Fair Trading realizó en este ámbito. El artículo concluye con una síntesis de las virtudes de este estilo de control preventivo de cláusulas abusivas.

Unlawful provisions of a contract (abusive clauses) – forms of review and the system of eliminating them from economic trading

As a rule, legal transactions are governed under the principle of the freedom of contract, though this does not mean that each provision included in a contract will be lawful, especially if a consumer is one of the parties to the contractual relationship. The legislator, whose aim is to equate the positions of the undertaking and the consumer, introduces a number of regulations addressing the inclusion of abusive clauses in a contract/standard contract. The paper discusses the definition of unlawful provisions correlated with forms of reviewing them with reference to amendments introduced in this scope.

Apontamentos jurídicos acerca das contas de jogos eletrônicos online

Jogos online são, inegavelmente, novéis modalidades de entretenimento e já são consideradas atividade profissional ou esporte (e-Sports), sendo praticadas por milhares de pessoas ao redor do mundo. League of Legends, World of Warcraft ou Overwatch são apenas alguns exemplos desses jogos que conectam pessoas e fazem circular milhares de dólares todos os anos. Diante dessa realidade, as empresas de jogos eletrônicos online impõem contratos aos usuários de seus serviços, os quais muitas vezes aceitam sem sequer ler o mesmo e, com isso, algumas cláusulas desses são abusivas e às vezes podem trazer algum tipo de prejuízo para o usuário-consumidor. Utilizando o método dedutivo com o auxílio da técnica de pesquisa indireta (bibliográfica e documental) apoiada em análise casuística qualitativa, busca-se analisar a possibilidade de eventual desconsideração das cláusulas que proporcionem algum tipo de desvantagem para o usuário-consumidor desta relação. Para tanto, três termos de uso oferecidos por empresas foram selecionadas para a análise: a Riot Games®, a Blizzard Entertainment® e a Hi-Rez Studios® – sendo elas diferenciadas pelos gêneros dos jogos oferecidos e pela quantidade de jogadores em cada. Como resultados parciais, tem-se constatado que ainda é parca a legislação sobre o tema e que o exercício de subsunção deve ser efetuado face ao Código de Defesa do Consumidor, a fim de se encontrar norte para regrar essas relações.

Unfair practices in the insurance market: describing unfair clauses

In a market economy, the protection of consumer rights is an extremely important issue. This also applies to the insurance market where these issues are generally understood as ones related to the conclusion and execution of insurance contracts. The insured person is exposed to many dangers, being the weaker party in the insurance market, since insurance companies, as professionals, can easily impose convenient transaction terms. The article aims to identify market practices including unfair terms imposed by insurance companies. It provides examples of such unfair terms and conditions in the form of so-called abusive clauses in insurance contracts and points to the consequences of their use.