Before the Giudice di Pace, Viadana, Idealservice argued that Cape and OMAI could not be regarded as 'consumers' for the purpose of applying Directive 93/13, which is concerned with unfair clauses in contracts concluded with consumers, because the contracts had been signed by companies in the course of their business activities and not by natural persons.

The Italian court then asked the Court of Justice to rule whether the term 'consumer', as defined in that directive, applied only to natural persons.

The purpose of the directive is to approximate the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to unfair terms in contracts concluded between a seller or supplier and a consumer. It was transposed into Italian law by Law No 52 of 6 February 1996.

The provisions in the Italian Civil Code constitute a literal transposition of the directive since they use exactly the same terms as the Community provisions to define the concepts of 'seller or supplier' and 'consumer'.

Idealservice, Italy, France and the Commission took the view that the term 'consumer' applied only to natural persons. Spain, however, considered that a legal person might possibly be regarded as a consumer.

Referring to the directive, the Court ruled that the term consumer used in it relates only to natural persons whilst the term 'seller or supplier' includes both natural and legal persons.

It should be noted that at present there are five other cases pending before the Court of Justice in relation to the same directive, namely:

_ three Treaty-infringement cases concerning incorrect transposition of Directive 93/13 into national law: against Italy (C-372/99), against Sweden (C-478/99) and against France
(C-244/01);

_ two cases in which a preliminary ruling is sought on the interpretation of Directive 93/13 (C-473/00 and C-129/01).

It should also be borne in mind that the case-law of the Court of Justice already includes two judgments concerning Directive 93/13: Case C-240/98 (judgment of 27 June 2000 concerning the power of a court to consider on its own initiative whether a clause conferring jurisdiction is unfair) and C-144/99 (judgment of 10 May 2001 to the effect that the transposition of the directive by means of national case-law alone is insufficient).

Unofficial document for media use only; not binding on the Court of Justice. Available in English, French, Italian and Spanish. For the full text of the judgment, please consult our Internet page www.curia.eu.int  at approximately 3pm today. For further information please contact Fionnuala Connolly: Tel: (00 352) 4303 3355; Fax: (00 352) 4303 2731