Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 26 February 2015 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunalul Specializat Cluj — Romania) — Bogdan Matei, Ioana Ofelia Matei v SC Volksbank România SA

(Case C-143/13) (1)

((Directive 93/13/EEC - Unfair terms in contracts concluded between a seller or supplier and a consumer - Article 4(2) - Assessment of the unfairness of contractual terms - Exclusion of terms relating to the main subject-matter of the contract or the adequacy of the price and remuneration as long as they are in plain intelligible language - Terms including a ‘risk charge’ charged by the lender and authorising it, under certain conditions, unilaterally to alter the interest rate))

(2015/C 138/04)

Language of the case: Romanian

Referring court

Tribunalul Specializat Cluj

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Bogdan Matei, Ioana Ofelia Matei

Defendant: SC Volksbank România SA

Operative part of the judgment

Article 4(2) of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts must be interpreted as meaning that, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings, ‘main subject-matter of the contract’ and ‘adequacy of the price and remuneration, on the one hand, as against the services or goods supplies in exchange, on the other’ do not, in principle, cover the types of terms in the credit agreements concluded between a professional and consumers such as those at issue in the main proceedings, which, on one hand, allow, under certain conditions, the lender unilaterally to alter the interest rate and, on the other hand, provide for a ‘risk charge’ applied by the lender. However, it is for the referring court to verify that classification of those contractual terms having regard to the nature, general scheme and stipulations of the agreements concerned and the legal and factual context of which they form part.

(1)  OJ C 171, 15.6.2013.