Even if private individuals buy an apartment for the purpose of renting it out, they can rely on their rights as consumers. A commercial purchase only exists if it is related to another professional activity, as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in Luxembourg on Thursday. (Af. C-347/23)
In the case of the dispute, a couple living in London had bought an apartment in Warsaw before Brexit. To finance it, it took out a loan from a Polish bank that was linked to the exchange rate of the Swiss franc. Because of the sharp rise in this rate, the couple canceled the contract. The clause was incomprehensible and violated the principle of good faith.
In contrast, the bank argued that the couple had bought the apartment to rent out and therefore for commercial purposes. It therefore cannot rely on EU consumer law.
The ECJ has now contradicted this. To justify this, he referred to the aim of EU law to protect consumers from contractual clauses over which they generally have no influence. In order to ensure this, the term “consumer” should be interpreted broadly. A consumer is therefore anyone whose actions cannot be attributed to their commercial or professional activity.
In this case, the man was a police officer and the woman was a school principal. They did not carry out any commercial activities and did not rent out any other apartments, as the court stated.
The Polish courts must now formally determine whether the spouses are considered consumers. If so, they must also check whether termination of the loan agreement was permitted under consumer law.
