In a question referred to the European Court of Justice for preliminary ruling, the Court was called to interpret Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights. Under that directive, the Member States must ensure that where a trader operates a telephone line for the purpose of being contacted in relation to contracts concluded with consumers, consumers are not to be bound to pay more than the basic rate for calls to that line. However, the concept of a “basic rate” is not defined by the above directive.
The ruling came after Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs Frankfurt am Main, a German association for combating unfair commercial practices, requested an injunction from Landgericht Stuttgart, ordering comtech GmbH, a German company selling electrical and electronic equipment to discontinue extra-charging customers for telephone after-sales services, a commercial practice deemed unfair.
In its judgment of 2 March 2017, the Court’s answer was that the concept of ‘basic rate’ must be interpreted as meaning that call charges relating to a contract concluded with a trader to a telephone helpline operated by the trader may not exceed the cost of a call to a standard geographic landline or mobile telephone line.
According to the Court, in everyday language ‘the basic rate’ refers to the standard cost of a call. Both the context in which that concept occurs in the directive and the purpose of that directive, namely to ensure a high level of consumer protection, confirm that the concept must be understood in that ordinary sense of the term.
To permit traders to charge rates higher than that of a standard call would result to discouraging consumers from using a telephone helpline in order for them to obtain information in relation to the contract, or from asserting their rights, in particular, relating to a guarantee or withdrawal.
Directive 2011/83/EU has been transposed into Greek law by virtue of Joint Ministerial Decision Ζ1-891/2013, pursuant to which a new Article 4e was added to Law 2251/1994 on Consumer Protection. Citing the relevant provision of the directive, Article 4e stipulates that “where the trader operates a telephone line for the purpose of contacting him by telephone in relation to concluded contracts, the consumer, when contacting him is not bound to pay more than the basic rate“. The Greek legislator has introduced, however, a sole exception, further providing in Article 4e that “the first subparagraph enters into force without any prejudice to the right of telecommunications service providers to charge for these calls“.
The CJEU judgment might be a good opportunity for us to reevaluate the relevance and justification of an exception favoring Greek TSPs.