Unfair Contract Terms: What They Are and How to Identify Them
Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
Standardised contracts are everywhere in the modern economy, but they can hide unfair terms that harm consumers. This article from the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” explains what an unfair contract term is under Moldova’s Civil Code, which largely transposes Council Directive 93/13/EEC, and how to recognise one.
A term is unfair if it was not individually negotiated and, contrary to good faith, creates a significant imbalance between the parties’ rights and obligations to the consumer’s detriment. Pre-drafted terms, especially in adhesion contracts such as credit, mobile telephony or utilities, are always treated as not individually negotiated. Two conditions must be met cumulatively: no individual negotiation and a significant imbalance.
Examples of imbalance include excessive late-payment penalties, limits on the professional’s liability for damage, extra obligations for the consumer without proportionate benefit, and unilateral tariff changes without prior notice or a right to terminate. The article stresses the equivalence of mutual performance. It was produced under the national campaign “Consumer rights are my rights!”, with EU and Soros Foundation Moldova support.
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