Judgment of the Court of Justice Grand Chamber, 17 January 2023, Spain v Commission, C-632/20 P

• Date: 17 January 2023
• Year: 2023

26

consequences.

52

However, the particularly unfavourable nature of the annulment of a contract

cannot be reduced solely to purely pecuniary consequences.

It is possible that the annulment of a contract for the provision of legal services that have already

been performed may place the consumer in a situation of legal uncertainty, in particular where

national law allows the seller or supplier to claim remuneration for those services on a different basis

from that of the annulled contract. Furthermore, the invalidity of the contract could possibly affect the

validity and effectiveness of the transactions conducted under it.

In those circumstances, the Court finds that, in the event that the annulment of the contract in its

entirety would expose the consumer to particularly unfavourable consequences, which it is for the

referring court to ascertain, Directive 93/13

53

does not preclude the national court from remedying

the invalidity of the unfair term by replacing it with a supplementary provision of national law or a

provision of national law applied by mutual agreement of the parties to that contract. On the other

hand, that directive precludes the national court from replacing the unfair term that has been

annulled with a judicial assessment of the level of remuneration due for those services.

VIII. INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS: EXTERNAL COMPETENCE OF THE

EUROPEAN UNION

Judgment of the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber), 17 January 2023, Spain v Commission,

C-632/20 P

Link to the full text of the judgment

Appeal – External relations – Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and

the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and Kosovo, of the other part – Electronic

communications – Regulation (EU) 2018/1971 – Body of European Regulators for Electronic

Communications (BEREC) – Article 35(2) – Participation of the regulatory authority of Kosovo in that body –

Concepts of ‘third country’ and ‘third State’ – Competence of the European Commission

Between 2001 and 2015, the European Union signed stabilisation and association agreements (SAA)

with six countries of the Western Balkans, including Kosovo. In that context, the European

Commission recommended actions to, inter alia, align the legislation of those countries with EU

legislation and incorporate the Western Balkans into existing regulatory bodies, such as the Body of

European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) established by Regulation 2018/1971.

54

In order to establish a closer relationship between the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) of the

European Union and of the Western Balkans, the Commission adopted six decisions, on 18 March

2019, concerning the participation in BEREC of the NRAs of the countries of the Western Balkans. The

decisions in question include a decision by which the Commission allowed the NRA of Kosovo to

52

See, to that effect, judgment of 3 March 2020, Gómez del Moral Guasch (C-125/18, EU:C:2020:138, paragraph 63 and the case-law cited).

53

Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Directive 93/13.

54

Regulation (EU) 2018/1971 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the Body of European

Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the Agency for Support for BEREC (BEREC Office), amending Regulation (EU)

2015/2120 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1211/2009 (OJ 2018 L 321, p. 1).