Abstract
Two of Holland’s neighbouring partners in trade and tourism have created new legal instruments for the control of standard terms irr contracts. In the Federal Republic of Germany an Act on Standard Terms of Business, known as AGB — Gesetz, of 1976, codified and amplified the controls, hitherto created by the courts, on standard terms of business.1In the United Kingdom the 1977 Unfair Contract Terms Act 2was adopted; this also regulates and restricts the effect of certain contract terms. The Dutch legislator also took steps in this direction in 1981 by submitting a Bill on General Conditions to Parliament.3
Dr. Jur.; Research Office, European Court of Justice, Luxembourg; Member of the Board of Editors.
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References
Act of 9 December 1976, regulating the law of standard terms of business, BGBI. I, 3317, entered into force on 1 April 1977.
Act of 26 October 1977, c. 50, entered into force on 1 February 1978.
Bill no. 16 983 (Tw. K. 1981, 16 983, nos. 1 – 3), introduced on 28 July 1981.
With the exception of s. 5 (misrepresentation) and s. 6 (implied terms in sales and hire purchases).
See Hartkamp, Vers un nouveau Code civil n é erlandais. Rev. int. dr. comp. 1982, p. 319.
Author’s translation. The English translation of ss. 1 – 13 of the Act in 26 AJCL (1978), p. 568, has not been followed as it does not appear to be wholly accurate, cf. n. 11 infra.
See among the numerous articles, Drobnig, AGB im internationalen Handelsverkehr, in Internationales Recht und Wirtschafsordnung(Festschrift Mann), 1977, p. 591; Landfermann, AGB-Gesetz und Auslandgeschà’fte, RIW 1977, p. 445; Jayme, Allgemeine Gesch ä ftsbedingungen und internationales Privatrecht, 142 ZHR (1978), p. 105 (115 et seq.); Sonnenberger, Bemerkungen zum Internationales Privatrecht im AGB-Gesetz, in Konflikt und Ordnung(Festschrift Ferid), 1978, p. 377; Stoll, Internationalprivatrechtliche Probleme bei Verwendung Allgemeiner Gesch ä ftsbedingungen, in Festschrift Beitzke, 1979, p. 759; H ü bner, Allgemeine Gesch ä ftsbedingungen und Internationales Privatrecht, NJW 1980, p. 2601.
See Jayme 116; Sonnenberger 381.
Cf. Kegel, Internationales Privatrecht(4th ed. 1977), p. 296; Sonnenberger 380 and cf. Stoll 776 – 777.
Sonnenberger 382.
Author’s translation; the translation in AJCL, supran. 6, translates ber ü cksichtigenin the opening clause as “to apply”, thus disguising one of the main problems inherent in this text. — The Act’s territory includes Berlin (s. 29).
See the explanatory note, Bundesrat doc. 360/75, p. 41.
See Sonnenberger 384 with references.
Jayme 119, Palandt- Heldrich, BGB (41st ed. 1982), p. 2393, comment 3 on Art. 12; contra, e.g., Schlosser et al, Kommentar zum AGB-Gesetz(1977), p. 562, Note 8 to Art. 12.
Drobnig 610 (“besonderes Fingerspitzengef ü hl”).
Landfermann 449.
Act of 28 July 1968, BGBl. I, 986.
Cf. the Second Report of the Law Commissions on Exemption clauses in Contracts (Law Com. No. 69, Scot. Law Com. No. 39), 1975, p. 80.
Morris, Statutes in the Conflict of Laws, in Multum non multa(Festschrift Lipstein), 1980, p. 187, at 194, 204; id., The Conflict of Lam(2nd ed. 1980), p. 224.
See the Report, supran. 18, para. 232.
Mann, The proposed new law of exemption clauses and the conflict of laws, 26 ICLQ (1977; Essays in honour of J.H.C. Morris), p. 903, at 908, 911 (quotation); see also id, Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the conflict of laws, 27 ICLQ (1978), p. 661.
Mann, 27 ICLQ (1978), at 662.
See Cheshire and North, Private International Law(10th ed. 1979), pp. 234 – 235; Mann, previous note.
Cheshire and North, previous note, at 235 and n. 4.
Mann, 27 ICLQ (1978), at 663.
Triebel, Das englische Gesetz ü ber unbillige Vertragsklauseln von 1977, RIW 1978, p. 353, at 358.
Cheshire and North, supran. 23, at 235 and n. 5, do not allow for that consequence.
Author’s translation.
OJ of the EC of 9 October 1980, No. L 266/1; see further infra, ch. 4.1.
Doc. 16 983 No. 3, at 66 – 67.
HR 13 May 1966, NJ 1967, 3, 15 NILR (1968), p. 82 note Deelen, Rev. crii d.i.p. 1967, p. 522 note Struycken, Clunet 1969, p. 1010.
See supra, n. 30. The memorandum mistakenly refers to s. 26 of the British Act, instead of s. 27.
S. 24(1) provides, inter alia, that ss. 10 and 12 do not apply to commercial transactions.
Cf. the analysis in Imhoff-Scheier, Protection du consommateur et contrats internatio-naux(Etudes suisses de droit international, vol. 22), 1981, pp. 65 – 67, whose discussion of s. 26 and its relationship to s. 27(2) is, however, not entirely clear to me.
Drobnig, supran. 7, at 611 – 612.
See Cheshire and North, supra n. 23, at 233 – 234.
In this sense apparently Imhoff-Scheier, supran. 34, at 67 and n. 51.
Hall, International sales and the Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973, 22 ICLQ (1973), p. 740, at 744.
Thus Mann, 27 ICLQ (1978),at 664.
In particular see Lando, The EC,Draft Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual and Non-Contractual Obligations, RabelsZ 1974, p. 6; von Hoffmann, ü ber den Schutz des Schw ä cheren bei internationalen SchuldvertrSgen, ibid., p. 396.
Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations, OJ of the EC of 9 October 1980, No. L 266/1; Report by Giuliano and Lagarde, OJ of 31 October 1980, No. C 282/1.
See above all, Lando, von Hoffmann and Siehr (eds.), European Private International Law of Obligations(1975), passim, and especially Drobnig, Comments on Art. 7 of the Draft Convention, p. 82; Batiffol, Le project de Convention CEE sur la loi applicable aux obligations contractuelles et non-contractuelles, Rev. trim. dr. eur. 1975, p. 181.
See, among others, Pocfar, Kodifìcation der Kollisionsnormen auf dem Gebiet des Vertragsrechts im Rahmen der Europ ä ischen Gemeinschaften, RIW 1979, p. 384, at 391; North, The EEC Convention on the Law applicable to Contractual Obligations, J.Bus.L. 1980, p. 382, at 387; Haak, Nieuw internationaal overeenkomstenrecht, WPNR 1980, p. 865, at 902.
Art. 22(l)(a).
Actes et Documents, 1976 – 1, p. 36.
See the Final Act, p. 34, reproduced in 27 NILR (1980), p. 408.
Prelim. Doc. No. 2, June 1979, p. 28.
See Schedule No. 2, under c: “(regard is to be had) whether the customer knew or ought reasonably to have known of the existence and the extent of the term (having regard, among other things, to any custom of the trade and any previous course of dealing between the parties)”.
Art 2.2(a) of the proposed new title.
See von Hoffmann, supran. 40; Vischer, The Antagonism between Legal Certainty and the Search for Justice in the Field of Contracts. 129 Recueil des Cours (1974 II). p. 1, 42 – 44; Landò, International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, III, ch. 24 (Contracts), ss. 249 – 252; Kropholler, Das kollisionsrechtliche System des Schutzes der schw ä cheren Vertragspartei, RabelsZ 1978, p. 634.
See Ehrenzweig, Adhesion Contracts in the Conflict of Laws, 53 Colum.L.Rey. (1953) 1072; Jessurun d’Oliveira, Internationaal overeenkomstenrecht, Mededelingen Ned. Ver. Int. Recht
no. 71 (1975), p. 71, 104, also in “Characteristic Obligation” In The Draft EEC Obligation Convention, 25 AJCL (1977), p. 303, 318; Vitta, Diritto Internationale Privato, HI (1975), pp. 429 – 435.
Drobnig, supra.n. 7, at 609 n. 77.
Based on the author’s research.
Imhoff-Scheier, supran. 34, at 56 – 58.
In this sense also see Sealy, The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, 37 Camb.L.J. (1978), p. 15, at 20.
Cf. on the settlement by arbitration Hondius’ contribution to this volume.
Cf. for the first two types, Lombois, Report on French private international law, in La protection du consommateur, 24 Travaux de l’Association Henri Capitant (1973), p. 441, at 456; Duintjer Tebbens, International Product Liability(1979), p. 367; Sauveplanne, Het toepasselijk recht op de internationale koop van roerende lichamelijke zaken, NJB 1979, p. 693, at 699.
Cf. Art. 3(2) of the 1955 Hague Sales Convention.
Cf. Duintjer Tebbens, supran. 57, at 168 and StolTs discussion, supran. 7, at 767 – 772; see also Arts. 3(4) and 8(1) of the EEC Convention.
See Prelim. Doc. No.1, January 1979, by Pelichet, p. 18 – 19, 24.
Art. 5(2) in fineof the EEC Convention, Art. 5(4) of the Hague text.
The term is referred to in the commentaries on the AGB-Gesetz.
Art. 3 sub p of the proposed new title.
See for the text of the amended Convention, OJ of the EC, No. L 304/77 of 30 October 1978.
Art. 14(1).
Zweigert, Zur Armut des IPR an sozialen Werten, RabelsZ 1973, p. 435.
See the writers cited in n. 50.
Cf. North, supran. 43, at 388, who considers the special rules for consumer contracts to be “a new and not wholly desirable development”.
See, e.g., Arts. 3(3) and 4(5) of the EEC Convention.
Vischer, supran. 50, at 53.
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Tebbens, H.D. (1983). Statutory Controls on Standard Terms Employed in an International Context: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease?. In: Essays on International & Comparative Law. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1468-6_3
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