Unfair Terms in UK Law
-
Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank Plc
“
The object of the regulations and the directive is to protect consumers against the inclusion of unfair and prejudicial terms in standard-form contracts into which they enter, and that object would plainly be frustrated if regulation 3(2)(b) were so broadly interpreted as to cover any terms other than those falling squarely within it. In my opinion the term, as part of a provision prescribing the consequences of default, plainly does not fall within it.
Openness requires that the terms should be expressed fully, clearly and legibly, containing no concealed pitfalls or traps. Fair dealing requires that a supplier should not, whether deliberately or unconsciously, take advantage of the consumer's necessity, indigence, lack of experience, unfamiliarity with the subject matter of the contract, weak bargaining position or any other factor listed in or analogous to those listed in Schedule 2 of the regulations.
-
George Mitchell (Chesterhall) Ltd v Finney Lock Seeds Ltd
“
It must follow, in my view, that, when asked to review such a decision on appeal, the appellate court should treat the original decision with the utmost respect and refrain from interference with it unless satisfied that it proceeded upon some erroneous principle or was plainly and obviously wrong.
-
Hadley Design Associates Ltd v The Lord Mayor and Citizens of the City of Westminster
“
Something more is needed, and on principle that something more, in my judgment, is that the relevant terms should exist in written form prior to the possibility of the making of the relevant agreement arising, thus being "written ", and they should be intended to be adopted more or less automatically in all transactions of a particular type without any significant opportunity for negotiation, thus being "standard".
-
Watford Electronics Ltd v Sanderson CFL Ltd
“
They should be taken to be the best judge on the question whether the terms of the agreement are reasonable. The court should not assume that either is likely to commit his company to an agreement which he thinks is unfair, or which he thinks includes unreasonable terms., Unless satisfied that one party has, in effect, taken unfair advantage of the other – or that a term is so unreasonable that it cannot properly have been understood or considered the court should not interfere.
-
Eastwood v Magnox Electric Plc
“
The statutory code provides remedies for infringement of the statutory right not to be dismissed unfairly. If before his dismissal, whether actual or constructive, an employee has acquired a cause of action at law, for breach of contract or otherwise, that cause of action remains unimpaired by his subsequent unfair dismissal and the statutory rights flowing therefrom. By definition, in law such a cause of action exists independently of the dismissal.
-
Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
“
The grant of injunctive or declaratory relief for an actual or threatened breach of contract would not jeopardise the coherence of our employment laws and would not be a recipe for chaos in the way that, as presaged by Lord Millett in Johnson, the recognition of parallel and inconsistent rights to seek compensation for unfair dismissal in the tribunal and damages in the courts would be.
- Unifying Unfair Terms Legislation
-
Unfair Contract Terms, Unfair Prices and Bank Charges
This note considers how the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive 1993 draws the line between the review of unfair contract terms and the review of unfair contracts (and, in particular, unfa...
- Unfair Contract Terms: The European Approach
- Scope and Fairness of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations: Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank
-
CMA publishes consultation on unfair contract terms guidance
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is consulting on draft guidance on the unfair terms provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the Act). Broadly, the Act gives effect in the UK to the ...
-
Consumer Rights Act 2015 Implementation in October 2015 - Do your consumer contracts have potentially unfair terms?
In this article, written for Compliance Monitor, Nicholas Ralph of Dentons looks at how the unfair terms provisions of the CRA may impact financial services firms. The Consumer Rights Act 2015...
- Late Payment: Challenging Grossly Unfair Terms And Practices
- Unfair Terms & Exclusion Clauses: The Limits Of Reasonableness
-
T420)
Includes the refund form for claimants.... ... guidance, set out in case law. In unfair dismissal claims, the tribunal may also order that you ... be reinstated ... The simplest type of case in terms of working out likely compensation is a claim for unpaid ... wages. In ... ...