If craftsmen or other service providers have not informed about the right of revocation in the case of an order arranged personally, for example in the customer's home, consumers can revoke the contract even after the work has been completed. They are then "exempt from any obligation to pay," as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Wednesday in Luxembourg. (Ref: C-97/22)
In the case before the ECJ, a homeowner had verbally commissioned a craftsman's business outside the business premises to renew the electrical installation as part of the renovation of his house. When the bill came afterwards, the owner did not pay. Instead, he revoked the contract. The craft business had not informed him of his right of withdrawal.
Two weeks for revocation
The background to this is the EU rules for so-called door-to-door sales, which are concluded outside the business premises of the commissioned company. Consumers can revoke such a contract within 14 days. The company must point this out. The period does not begin until the commissioned company has complied with this obligation to inform.
In the specific case of "door-to-door sales", the Essen Regional Court wanted to know from the ECJ what applies if the service provider has already completed its work in full before the revocation. The Essen court initially assumed that it would have to be possible for consumers to pay so-called compensation for benefits already obtained if – unlike in the case of ordered products – a return is not possible.
Consumer protection comes first
However, the EU's top judges pointed to the high priority of the right of withdrawal for the protection of consumers. It should allow them to withdraw from a contract that they have concluded under pressure or an element of surprise. This intentionally high level of consumer protection is undermined if consumers incur costs in the event of a permissible withdrawal that are not provided for under EU law.
In the case of door-to-door sales without cancellation policy, consumers are therefore "exempt from any obligation to pay for the services" even if they only revoke the contract after completion of the work.
The regulations provided for door-to-door sales also apply to so-called distance selling, i.e. orders processed by telephone or e-mail. However, the ECJ expressly had to decide only on door-to-door sales.