The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently dealt with a case where a consumer (“Mr X”) booked a hotel room in a German hotel through the well-known Internet portal booking.com. Mr X completed a booking on this portal, entered his personal details, but failed to turn up on the first day of his booked stay. The following day, the hotel charged Mr X a cancellation fee of EUR 2,240 in accordance with the terms and conditions, which Mr X did not pay.

The company operating the hotel subsequently sought payment of the cancellation fee at court. The company argued that by pressing the “Complete Booking” button Mr X entered into the contract. The German BGB, which, among other things, transposes the Consumer Rights Directive, requires that the button for placing an order be marked in an easily legible manner with the term “order binding for payment” or other appropriate and unambiguous wording.

In this situation, the German court doubted whether that obligation had been fulfilled in the present case. The German court further stated that the word “booking” in the expression “Complete booking” is not necessarily associated in common parlance with an obligation to pay financial consideration, but is also often used as a synonym for “reserving in advance free of charge”. It therefore referred the case to the Court of Justice with a preliminary question as to whether the expression on the button alone should be taken into account or whether the circumstances of the entire ordering process should also be taken into account.

The Court concluded that, with regard to the purpose and meaning of the Directive and the Act, protection of the consumer is paramount. Moreover, nothing prevents the seller (booking.com) from modifying the wording of the button without losing competitiveness. For this reason, it concluded that only the text of the button itself should be assessed. 

It will now be up to the German court to assess whether in the German language the expression “complete the booking” is an expression, which draws attention to the fact that the placing of an order gives rise to an obligation on the part of the consumer to pay the trader, from the point of view of an average consumer, who has sufficient information and is reasonably attentive and careful.

Conclusion

The Czech Civil Code does not contain a provision similar to the German BGB. However, the above conclusions can undoubtedly be applied to contracts concluded under its regime as well. It must be clear to the average consumer that he or she is entering into a contract, thereby incurring an obligation to pay for the services or goods ordered. The above example is all the more relevant in our country, because in the Czech language reservations are also used for both paid and unpaid booking of services or goods. If you are interested in the topic or if you are facing a similar problem, please, do not hesitate to contact us. 

Author: Tomáš Brůha