Following on from legal circulars 1/2007 and 2/2007, we present some further information on legal issues relating to withdrawal from a consumer contract, which are naturally frequently addressed by traders in their activities.

The Directive on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts (97/7/EC) establishes in Article 6 the right to withdraw from a distance contract within a period of at least seven working days. As is generally known, the Civil Code implements this provision in its Section 53(7), according to which “where a contract has been concluded using means of distance communication, the consumer has the right to withdraw from the contract without giving reasons and without any penalty within 14 days of receipt of performance.” However, the said 14-day period for withdrawal from the contract is extended to a period of 3 months where the supplier has not provided the consumer with the information which he is required to provide to him in writing or in another similar manner pursuant to the provisions of Section 53(4) and (6) of the Civil Code. If the information required by law is provided during this three-month period, it comes to an end and a fourteen-day period again begins to run from the time the information is provided.

It is appropriate to note that both the above-mentioned periods are substantive law periods, which means that the withdrawal from the contract made by the consumer must be delivered to the addressee (supplier) within the specified period. However, delivery cannot be understood as actual acquaintance with the content of the consignment by the addressee, but as the fact that the message has come into the disposition of the addressee. From a legal point of view, for a valid withdrawal from a consumer contract it is therefore generally insufficient if the withdrawal from the contract was merely posted at the post office etc. within the specified period.

It follows from the general regulation of withdrawal in the Civil Code that withdrawal from a distance contract cancels the obligation relationship from its inception (ex tunc) and creates a situation as if the contract had never arisen. The consequence is the obligation of the parties to settle according to the principles of unjust enrichment, i.e. to return all performance received under the cancelled contract. We dealt in more detail with situations where damaged goods are returned by the consumer in legal circular 2/2007.

In practice, cases can be encountered where traders condition the validity of the legal act of withdrawal (from the contract) by requiring within the period given by law for withdrawal also the return of the goods – thus, where the consumer does not deliver the goods together with the withdrawal within the 14-day period, they declare the withdrawal invalid. This practice must be described as incorrect – withdrawal as a unilateral legal act is perfected by its reaching the addressee and its validity thus cannot, from a legal point of view, be conditioned by the return of the goods etc. However, this should not affect the supplier’s right to refuse performance (return of money) until such time as he is provided with or secured mutual performance within the meaning of the provision of Section 560 of the Civil Code.

In this connection, it is possible to mention again that Section 53(10) of the Civil Code clarified (with effect from 8 March 2006) that where the consumer has exercised the right to withdraw from the contract, the supplier is obliged to return the financial amounts paid by the consumer no later than 30 days from the withdrawal. A deficiency of this legal regulation appears to be that the thirty-day period is set only for the supplier in relation to the return of financial performance to the consumer and no similar period is set for the consumer to return the purchased goods. The supplier thus possibly has no choice but to opt for the above-mentioned procedure pursuant to the provision of Section 560 of the Civil Code or to properly address this situation in contractual relations with the consumer.

This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.