As part of our effort to look back to last year and cover any cases that we might have missed at the height of the pandemic, the CJEU's order in case C-98/20 mBank S.A. v PA on Regulation 1215/2012 (Brussels I Recast) deserves a mention.
The case involved the interpretation of Article 18(2) according to which '[p]roceedings may be brought against a consumer by the other party to the contract only in the courts of the Member State in which the consumer is domiciled,’ and raised the question of the time at which the consumer's domicile is to be determined.
PA was a 'mobile' consumer who has concluded a consumer credit agreement with mBank in the Czech Republic where he/she was domiciled at the time when the contract was concluded, however, he/she subsequently moved and had her/his address in Slovak Republic at the time when mBank sued the consumer for payment default.
The CJEU ruled that the concept of 'consumer's domicile must be interpreted as designating the consumer's domicile at the date on which the court action is brought. In justifying this approach the court looked at the literal interpretation of the provision that refers to ‘the Member State in which the consumer is domiciled (emphasis added)’; to requirements of legal certainty in situations where consumers could have changed their domicile even several times in the course of the given legal relationship and a similar solution offered by 1968 Brussels Convention. Importantly, the court also notes, this solution is consistent with the purpose of the special jurisdiction established for consumer contracts, that is, to protect the 'economically weaker and less experienced' party to the contract.
