Transparency of business-to-consumer terms on attorney fees, in contracts concerning legal counselling services

Abstract

The study examines the issue of establishing the unfair nature of clauses in legal assistance contracts between a lawyer and a consumer, prefiguring the payment of lawyer fees based on an hourly rate, as this criterion was highlighted in the jurisprudence of the CJEU, especially in the judgments pronounced in case C-395/21 and in case C-335/21. The emphasis is placed on the requirement of transparency of the costs of legal advice services in relations with consumers, in the light of the recital according to which, although the adhesion clauses are unchallengeable according to article 4, 2^nd para. of Directive 93/13 if these terms concern elements of the price of services or products supplied to the consumer, those contractual provisions remain included in the analysis of unfairness in situations where they have been stated by the proferens in excessively technical language or when resorting to evasive and non-transparent provisions.