11.1.2014

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 9/17

(Case C-537/13)

2014/C 9/27

Language of the case: Lithuanian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Birutė Šiba

Defendant: Arūnas Devėnas

Questions referred

1.Is a natural person who receives legal services pursuant to agreements for legal services concluded with a lawyer (an advokatas) for a fee, those services being supplied in cases which are likely to be connected with the natural person’s personal interests (divorce, division of assets acquired in the marriage and so forth), to be regarded as a consumer within the meaning of EU consumer protection laws?

2.Is a lawyer (an advokatas) who is a member of a ‘[liberal] profession’ who draws up an agreement with a natural person for the supply of legal services in return for a fee, which obliges him to provide legal services so that the natural person may achieve aims unconnected with her occupation or profession, to be regarded as a trader for the purposes of EU consumer protection laws?

3.Do agreements for the supply of legal services for a fee which a lawyer (an advokatas) draws up in the course of his professional activities as a representative of a liberal profession fall within the scope of Council Directive 93/13/EEC (1) of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts?

4.If the third question should be answered in the affirmative, are general criteria to be applied in classifying such agreements as consumer contracts or should they be recognised as consumer contracts according to special criteria? If it is necessary to apply special criteria for the classification of such agreements as consumer contracts, what are those criteria?

(1) OJ L 95, p. 29.