Official Journal of the European Union

C 36/3

(Joined Cases C-708/17 and C-725/17) (*)

(References for a preliminary ruling - Consumer protection - Directive 2011/83/EU - Consumer law - Article 2(1) - Concept of ‘consumer’ - Article 3(1) - Contract concluded between a trader and a consumer - Contract for the supply of district heating - Article 27 - Inertia selling - Directive 2005/29/EC - Unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market - Article 5 - Prohibition of unfair commercial practices - Annex I - Unsolicited supply - National law requiring each owner of a property in a building in co-ownership connected to a district heating network to contribute to the costs of thermal energy consumption by the common areas and internal installation of the building - Energy efficiency - Directive 2006/32/EC - Article 13(2) - Directive 2012/27/EU - Article 10(1) - Billing information - National law providing that, in a building in co-ownership, bills for the consumption of thermal energy by the internal installation are calculated, for each owner of an apartment in the building, in proportion to the heated volume of his or her apartment)

(2020/C 36/03)

Language of the case: Bulgarian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: ‘EVN Bulgaria Toplofikatsia’ EAD (C-708/17), ‘Toplofikatsia Sofia’ EAD (C-725/17)

Defendants: Nikolina Stefanova Dimitrova (C-708/17), Mitko Simeonov Dimitrov (C-725/17)

Intervenir: ‘Termokomplekt’ OOD (C-725/17)

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 27 of Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council read in conjunction with Article 5(1) and (5) of Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’), must be interpreted as not precluding a national law that provides that the owners of an apartment in a building in co-ownership connected to a district heating network are required to contribute to the costs of the consumption of thermal energy by the common parts and the internal installation of the building, even though they did not individually request the supply of that thermal energy and they do not use it in their apartment.

2.Article 13(2) of Directive 2006/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2006 on energy end-use efficiency and energy services and repealing Council Directive 93/76/EEC and Article 10(1) of Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on energy efficiency, amending Directives 2009/125/EC and 2010/30/EU and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC must be interpreted as not precluding a national law that provides that in a building held in co-ownership the bills for thermal energy consumption by the internal installation are calculated for each property owner in the building in proportion to the heated volume of his or her apartment.

*

Language of the case: Bulgarian

(*)

ECLI:EU:C:2020:36