Consumer Law Conference, Malta, 16-17 March 2006 Linked Credit Agreements in EC Consumer Credit Law Prof. Dr. Peter Rott Junior Professor for Private Law with a focus on European Private Law, University of Bremen. Introduction The purchase of consumer goods or services is frequently financed by a third party that is more or less closely linked with the trader. This tripartite relationship in which the consumer is confronted with two contracting partners has replaced a bilateral relationship in which the seller has given the purchaser a loan; and it has created problems ever since.1 What happens to the sales contract if the connected credit is invalid or withdrawn or terminated by the consumer? And what happens to the consumer credit contract if the sales contract is invalid, or if the purchased good is defective? Under what circumstances is the connection between the two contracts close enough to evoke legal consequences? Long before the EC adopted the first Consumer Credit Directive, national courts and legislators have sought to protect the purchaser from an artificial splitting up of an economically connected situation.2 The link between a sales contract and a credit contract is narrowest if the trader also grants a credit under a legally separate contract, or if the trader and the creditor belong to the same group of companies, as with banks that were created in order to finance the purchase of cars of one particular producer.3 From a purchaser's perspective, the situation is similar where the trader is in a certain, not necessarily long-standing, relationship with one or more particular creditors and acts as their intermediary. In such situations, it seems legitimate to hold the creditor liable for non-performance or bad performance because he benefits from the connection between the sales contract and the credit contract.4 One argument of economic efficiency may be added. The creditor who is in a long-standing relationship with a trader is usually better equipped to control and sanction non-performance or bad performance by the trader than the partner of a one-off contractual relationship.5 This paper first analyses the respective rules of the current Consumer Credit Directive 87/102/EEC (B.) and gives an overview of the regulation of linked contracts in other consumer law Directives (C.). It then explores the rules envisaged by the EC Commission for a new Consumer Credit Directive (D.) and their prospective relevance, in particular with a view to the principles of maximum harmonisation and of mutual recognition (E.). Taking Germany as an example to illustrate the consequences on national law on linked credit contracts (F.), it concludes that the new rules will severely impact on consumer protection in tri-partite relationships at least in some Member States. ID: 37063 Autor(en): iff Erscheinungsdatum: 21.03.06     Prof. Dr. Peter Rott 'Linked Credit Agreements in EC Consumer Credit Law' (180141 Bytes) Prof. Dr. Peter Rott PowerPoint presentation (132258 Bytes)

World Partner       EU-Partner

Erzeugt: 21.03.06. Letzte Änderung: 21.03.06.
Information zum Urheberrecht der angezeigten Inhalte kann beim Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen erfragt werden. Aus fehlenden Angaben kann kein Recht zur freien Nutzung der Inhalte abgeleitet werden.