The fair compensation fee is a sum of money as a penalty due by consumers who terminate before the deadline stipulated in the service contract to cover the damage caused to the other contracting party. Usually, in the case of these service contracts, we are talking about legal relationships that arise between consumers and traders. The manifestation of will between the two parties, meant to produce legal effects, takes the form of an accession contract, the clauses being pre-established by the trader, and the consumer obliged to accept them.
Is the fair compensation tax a means of restricting the consumer’s freedom of unilateral complaint? Is it just a way to protect the trader? Are we talking about an abusive clause or not? According to law no. 296/2004 regarding the Consumer Code, art. 84: ,, The consumer’s right to terminate or terminate the contract may not be annulled or restricted by any contractual clause or agreement between the parties, in the cases provided by law, this being considered null and void. The rights of the parties regarding a fair compensation will not be affected in case of unilateral denunciation ”.
The above mentioned provision must be completed with art. 4 of Law no. 193/2000 on unfair terms in contracts concluded between professionals and consumers: “(1) A contractual term which has not been negotiated directly with the consumer shall be considered unfair if, by itself or in conjunction with other provisions of the contract, it creates, to the detriment of consumer and contrary to the requirements of good faith, a significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of the parties.
(2) A contractual clause shall be deemed not to have been negotiated directly with the consumer if it was established without enabling the consumer to influence its nature, such as standard pre-formulated contracts or general conditions of sale by traders in that product or service. ”.
In conclusion, we can talk about the abusive nature of a fair compensation clause in case of an imbalance regarding the benefits due and exercised by the parties. For example, we cannot invoke the abusive feature in the case of a contract that produced exclusive benefits for the consumer at a given time.
Bibliography:
[1] Legea 296/2004 privind Codul consumului, art. 84, pagină accesată la data de 11.07.2022, ora 9:44, https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/90596,
[2] Legea nr. 193/2000 privind clauzele abuzive din contractele încheiate între profesioniști și consumatori , art. 4, pagină accesată la data de 11.07.2022, ora 10:50, https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocumentAfis/91502