Unfair contract terms

Have you ever shopped online or made a large investment and bought a car or a house? In the cases listed above, you have most likely concluded a contract with a company that applied standard terms and conditions, or GTCs. Have you ever read these conditions carefully? Have you looked at the terms and conditions when shopping online? What exactly are the GTC and why do we use them so much in our daily lives?

A general contractual term is a contractual term that is unilaterally agreed in advance by the user for the purpose of concluding several contracts, without the involvement of the other party, and which has not been individually negotiated by the parties.

Think of an online purchase. Within a short period of time, hundreds or even thousands of people may order from a given company. The easiest way for a company to provide customers with the most important information (e.g. information about the business, how to place an order, consumer rights) is to include it in the GTC, so that it does not have to be explained separately for each order.

It is important to underline that the GTC will only become part of the contract if its user (e.g. the business operating the webshop) has allowed the other party to become aware of its contents before the conclusion of the contract and if the other party has accepted it. When shopping online, it is important that the GTCs can be stored and retrieved, i.e. printed and saved.

The other party must be informed separately of any contractual term that departs substantially from the law or from normal contractual practice, unless it is in accordance with established practice between the parties. The other party must also be informed separately of a general contractual term which differs from a term previously applied between the parties. Such a term becomes part of the contract if the other party has expressly accepted it after having been separately informed. An additional claim against the consumer becomes part of the contract if the consumer has expressly accepted it after having been informed separately.

In order to protect your rights as a consumer, we therefore recommend that you always read the GTC and, at least in the case of large purchases, keep (e.g. save) them for future reference. In the event that you discover an unfair term in a contract, you can take the matter to the competent government office in the capital or county of your county, which acts as the general consumer protection authority and whose head may even bring an action in the public interest to declare the unfair general terms and conditions that have become part of the contract between the consumer and the business invalid.