CA Consumer Finance SA v Ingrid Bakkaus and Others.
Date: 2014-12-18
21. It should be noted at the outset that the pre-contractual obligations referred to in the questions contribute to attaining the objective pursued by Directive 2008/48, which, as can be seen from recitals 7 and 9 in the preamble to that directive, consists in providing, as regards consumer credit, full and mandatory harmonisation in a number of key areas, which is regarded as necessary in order to ensure that all consumers in the European Union enjoy a high and equivalent level of protection of their interests and to facilitate the emergence of a well-functioning internal market in consumer credit (see judgment in LCL Le Crédit Lyonnais , C‑565/12, EU:C:2014:190, paragraph 42).
23. According to settled case-law, in the absence of relevant EU rules, the detailed procedural rules designed to ensure the protection of the rights which individuals acquire under EU law are a matter for the domestic legal order of each Member State, in accordance with the principle of the procedural autonomy of the Member States, provided that they are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic situations (principle of equivalence) and that they do not make it in practice impossible or excessively difficult to exercise rights conferred by the EU legal order (principle of effectiveness) (see, inter alia, judgment in Specht and Others, C‑501/12 to C‑506/12, C‑540/12 and C‑541/12, EU:C:2014:2005, paragraph 112 and the case-law cited).
25. As regards the principle of effectiveness, it should be noted that every case in which the question arises as to whether a national procedural provision makes the application of EU law impossible or excessively difficult must be analysed by reference to the role of that provision in the procedure, its progress and its special features, viewed as a whole, before the various national bodies (judgment in Kušionová , C‑34/13, EU:C:2014:2189, paragraph 52 and the case-law cited).
41. As regards the first part of that question, it is apparent from Article 5(6) of, and recital 27 in the preamble to, Directive 2008/48 that, notwithstanding the pre-contractual information which must be provided under Article 5(1) of that directive, the consumer may, before entering into the credit agreement, still need additional assistance in order to decide which credit agreement is the most appropriate for his needs and his financial situation. The creditor must therefore provide the consumer with adequate, personalised explanations in order to place the consumer in a position that enables him to assess whether the proposed credit agreement is adapted to his needs and to his financial situation, where appropriate by providing explanations of the pre-contractual information, the essential characteristics of the products proposed and the specific effects they may have on his situation, including the consequences of default in payment by the consumer.
43. However, as has already been stated in paragraph 35 above, the obligation to assess the consumer’s creditworthiness, laid down in Article 8(1) of Directive 2008/48, aims to make creditors accountable and to prevent them from granting loans to consumers who are not creditworthy.