Judgment;Summary — ECLI:EU:C:2025:924
Date: 2025-11-27
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: Ninth Chamber
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Spain

summary order for payment procedure, which is designed to be a fast-track procedure aimed at ensuring the rapid recovery of claims which are due, payable and liquid. The consumer’s participation in the review of the unfairness of contractual terms remains ensured, since Spanish procedural law appears to provide, in subsequent inter partes proceedings, the possibility for the consumer to assert his or her rights and pleas in defence in full. 46 It is apparent from the documents before the Court that, first, that order may be reviewed in the context of ordinary proceedings on the merits which fully respect the principle of audi alteram partem between the parties, since the consumer has the possibility of opposing that order in accordance with the detailed rules laid down in Article 818 of the LEC. Second, since, under Article 815(3) of the LEC, acceptance by the applicant seller or supplier cannot in any event be treated as a partial waiver of his or her claim, that seller or supplier may assert the unpaid part of the claim in the context of declaratory proceedings, in which the consumer participates in full compliance with the principle of audi alteram partem. 47 Consequently, the answer to the third question is that Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Directive 93/13 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which does not provide for the consumer to participate in the review, by the court hearing an application for an order for payment brought by a seller or supplier against that consumer, of the possible unfairness of the contractual terms on which that application is based or which determine the amount of the claim being sought, provided that, first, the order for payment procedure does not have the force of res judicata and, second, the principle of audi alteram partem is guaranteed in any subsequent proceedings between the consumer and that seller or supplier in relation to the same claims made by the latter. Costs 48 Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the referring court, the decision on costs is a matter for that court. Costs incurred in submitting observations to the Court, other than the costs of those parties, are not recoverable. On those grounds, the Court (Ninth Chamber) hereby rules: 1. Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, read in the light of the principle of effectiveness, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which provides, first, that a court hearing an application by a seller or supplier for an order for payment against a consumer may make a proposal for a reduction in the amount of the claim, which excludes any amounts arising from the application of a contractual term which it considered to be unfair, without being able to find, on that basis, that it is void and, second, that that seller or supplier, after accepting that proposal, has the possibility of bringing other legal proceedings in order to recover, from that consumer, the amount of the claim rejected by that court, provided that the consumer can obtain, in other legal proceedings, a declaration that the contractual term considered to be unfair is void. 2. Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Directive 93/13 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which does not provide for the consumer to participate in the review, by the court hearing an application for an order for payment brought by a seller or supplier against that consumer, of the possible unfairness of the contractual terms on which that application is based or which determine the amount of the claim being sought, provided that, first, the order for payment procedure does not have the force of res judicata and, second, the principle of audi alteram partem is guaranteed in any subsequent proceedings between the consumer and that seller or supplier in relation to the same claims made by the latter. [Signatures] * Language of the case: Spanish.