UK. Car Hire. Distance Selling

Easycar (UK) Ltd. V OFT (C 336/03) [2005] All ER (EC) 835E provided car hire services in the UK and other Member States. Customers could book the services on the Internet. E’s terms and conditions only permitted cancellations by consumers in very exceptional circumstances. The Office of Fair Trading brought the action on grounds that E was not complying with the provisions of Article 6 of the Distance Selling Directive which permits a cooling-off period. The ECJ held that car-hire was a form of transport service and therefore exempt under the provisions of Article 3(2) of the Directive. Providing a car-hire service was the provision to consumers with a means of access to transport.

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