CELEX: 62013CN0537
Language: en
Date: 2013-10-14 00:00:00
Title: Case C-537/13: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas (Lithuania) lodged on 14 October 2013 — Birutė Šiba v Arūnas Devėnas

11.1.2014   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 9/17
            
         Request for a preliminary ruling from the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas (Lithuania) lodged on 14 October 2013 — Birutė Šiba v Arūnas Devėnas
   (Case C-537/13)
   2014/C 9/27
   Language of the case: Lithuanian
   
      Referring court
   
   Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   
      Applicant: Birutė Šiba
   
      Defendant: Arūnas Devėnas
   
      Questions referred
   
   
               1.
            
            
               Is a natural person who receives legal services pursuant to agreements for legal services concluded with a lawyer (an advokatas) for a fee, those services being supplied in cases which are likely to be connected with the natural person’s personal interests (divorce, division of assets acquired in the marriage and so forth), to be regarded as a consumer within the meaning of EU consumer protection laws?
            
         
               2.
            
            
               Is a lawyer (an advokatas who is a member of a ‘[liberal] profession’) who draws up an agreement with a natural person for the supply of legal services in return for a fee, which obliges him to provide legal services so that the natural person may achieve aims unconnected with her occupation or profession, to be regarded as a trader for the purposes of EU consumer protection laws?
            
         
               3.
            
            
               Do agreements for the supply of legal services for a fee which a lawyer (an advokatas) draws up in the course of his professional activities as a representative of a liberal profession fall within the scope of Council Directive 93/13/EEC (1) of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts?
            
         
               4.
            
            
               If the third question should be answered in the affirmative, are general criteria to be applied in classifying such agreements as consumer contracts or should they be recognised as consumer contracts according to special criteria? If it is necessary to apply special criteria for the classification of such agreements as consumer contracts, what are those criteria?
            
         
      (1)  OJ L 95, p. 29.