The Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement to update, simplify and facilitate the existing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) framework. This should make these procedures more accessible, appealing and better suited to the digital age.
Following a request for a preliminary ruling from Slovakia, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that consumer protection and the requirement of effective judicial protection mean that consumers must be able, under certain conditions, to challenge the lawfulness of the transfer of ownership to a third party following the enforcement of a mortgage on their family home.
An agreement under which a sportsman under the age of majority is obliged to share part of his future income once he becomes a professional athlete may be in breach of the Directive on unfair terms in consumer contracts. The European Court of Justice held, that the national court must assess the unfairness of such a term by considering whether a legal clause to that effect is plain and intelligible as regards the financial consequences of the commitment.
