CJEU Decision - Implications For Business-To-Consumer Contracts

Sellers that trade online with EU consumers need to ensure that their standard terms of business are fair and communicated in plain language to the consumer. We examine a recent case where the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held Amazon's 'choice of law' clause to be unfair within the meaning of the Unfair Consumer Contracts Directive (93/13/EEC). It also was held that the term gave consumers the impression that only the law chosen by Amazon applied to the contract between Amazon and the consumer. 

Amazon EU, a company established in Luxembourg, conducted sales with Austrian consumers remotely through a website, with a German language page, called amazon.de. Amazon had no registered office or branch in Austria. The website's standard terms and conditions provided that the governing law was that of Luxembourg. A local consumer protection organisation, the Verein fur Konsumenteninformation ("VKI"), applied for an injunction in the Austrian courts to