ECJ – Judgment of 16.12.2008, Gysbrechts y Santurel Inter, C 205/07 – Consumer protection in distance contracts – Prohibition on requiring from a consumer a deposit or payment before the end of the period for withdrawal

Abstract

The Belgian authorities, when incorporating to the Internal law the Directive 97/7/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, decided on a regulation of the right of withdrawal that increased the level of protection with respect to the communitarian minimum demanded. In this way, any claim of payment of the consumer was specifically prohibited before the conclusion of the withdrawal period. On the other hand, the case-law, when applying this norm, carried out an extensive interpretation of it, understanding that the legal prohibition also included the request of the payment card number in the forms of distance selling. Raised like a preliminary ruling before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the High Court understood that Article 29 CE wasn’t opposed to the norm contained in the Belgian law, in its literal interpretation, but to the extension that of this prohibition the case-law had accomplished since this last one, constituting a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction on exports, was no proportionate to the objective pursued.