Order of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 6 February 2024 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Sofiyski rayonen sad – Bulgaria) – Proceedings brought by ʻProfi Credit Bulgariaʼ EOOD, ʻAgentsia za sabirane na vzemaniaʼ EAD, ʻCity Cashʼ OOD
(Case C-425/23, City Cash and Others) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – Consumer protection – Directive 93/13/EEC – Article 6(1) – Article 7(1) – Ex officio review – Unfair terms – Application for an order for payment – Individual specification of amounts claimed – Instructions of the higher court in relation to the issue of an order for payment – Obligation on the lower court to comply with those instructions)
Language of the case: Bulgarian
Referring court
Sofiyski rayonen sad
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicants: ʻProfi Credit Bulgariaʼ EOOD, ʻAgentsia za sabirane na vzemaniaʼ EAD, ʻCity Cashʼ OOD
Operative part of the order
Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts,
must be interpreted as precluding national case-law according to which a court hearing an application for an order for payment, relating to part of the debt payable under a consumer credit agreement, cannot order the creditor to specify the amount of the instalments demanded of the consumer and is therefore obliged to issue the order for payment applied for in respect of the entire amount claimed where, in the absence of such specification, it is impossible for that court to distinguish the claims arising from the unfair terms from the remainder of the application and, consequently, to dismiss the application solely in respect of the claims arising from those terms.
Article 6(1) of Directive 93/13
must be interpreted as precluding, subject to the observance of the principle of res judicata, a national court, which is to make an order following the referral of the case back by a higher court, from being bound, in accordance with national procedural law, by the instructions provided by the higher court obliging it to issue an order for payment, if that court considers that those instructions do not take into account the legal consequences of the unfairness of a term of a consumer credit agreement.
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1 OJ C C/2023/118.