Unfair Terms in Banking and Financial Contracts added to FBL
October 4, 2023
New Title Added to OLRL
Unfair Terms in Banking and Financial Contracts edited by Danny Busch and Matthias Lehmann is now available.
This timely new work provides a thorough overview, analysis, and discussion of the Unfair Terms Directive (UTD) and its impact on banking and financial contracts in Europe. The book argues that this sector uniquely necessitates unfair terms control, due to the asymmetrical relationship between lay consumers and the financial industry, and it discusses the role of the judiciary in addressing this imbalance. The rise of the UTD as a remedy for consumers and businesses against financial institutions with superior bargaining power has led to questions about the Directive’s threat to existing contracts. Disputes have already arisen in several areas including foreign currency housing loans, housing loans based on Euribor, and hidden bank fees. Beginning with an overview of the UTD and the extensive case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the volume brings together leading authorities in the field of financial law to provide analyses of the UTD’s application in this sector across eighteen European jurisdictions: United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Estonia. Locating the UTD within a broader European struggle to balance the power of market forces and the requirements of social justice, the volume offers a forceful critique of the existing regime of unfair terms control and concludes with a proposal for a common legal framework to ensure a level playing field and greater harmonization across the European Union.
