Gerardo Parejo Fernández. Abogado Asociado.
El Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea (TJUE) dictó el pasado martes 3 de marzo su esperada Sentencia sobre el índice IRPH. El contenido de la misma podemos resumirlo en los siguientes puntos:
Esta Sentencia es la respuesta a una petición de decisión prejudicial remitida por el Juzgado de Primera Instancia nº 38 de Barcelona, en el seno de un procedimiento judicial iniciado por demanda en la que se denunciaba el carácter abusivo de la cláusula relativa al tipo de interés remuneratorio variable,referenciado al índice IRPH, de un contrato de préstamo hipotecario suscrito con BANKIA.
En virtud de dicha cláusula, el tipo de interés que pagara el consumidor variaría en función del índice de referencia. Dicho índice venía establecido por la normativa nacional y podía ser aplicado por las entidades de crédito a los préstamos hipotecarios, si bien, el Juzgado señalaba que este índice era menos ventajoso que el EURIBOR, que se utiliza en el 90 % de los préstamos hipotecarios firmados en España, situación ésta que genera un coste adicional de aproximadamente 20.000 euros por préstamo.
Aplicación de la Directiva 93/13/CEE
El Tribunal Europeo concluye que están comprendidas en el ámbito de aplicación de la Directiva 93/13/CEE las cláusulas de contratos de préstamo hipotecario que estipulen que el tipo de interés aplicable al préstamo se basará en uno de los índices de referencia oficiales establecidos por la normativa nacional y que las entidades de crédito pueden aplicar a los préstamos hipotecarios, cuando esa normativa no establezca ni la aplicación imperativa del índice en cuestión, con independencia de la elección de las partes del contrato, ni su aplicación supletoria en el supuesto de que las partes no hayan pactado otra cosa.
Control de transparencia
Por otro lado, el Tribunal señala que las cláusulas contractuales deben siempre cumplir el requisito de la redacción clara y comprensible, debiendo siempre asegurarse los Estados miembros de que las cláusulas que se refieran al objeto principal de los contratos cumplan este requisito.
A este respecto, para cumplir con el requisito de la transparencia que impone la Directiva, las cláusulas que fijen en los contratos de préstamo hipotecario un tipo de interés variable no solo deberán ser comprensibles en un plano formal y gramatical, sino también permitir que el consumidor medio, normalmente informado y razonablemente atento y perspicaz, esté en condiciones de comprender el funcionamiento concreto del modo de cálculo del referido tipo de interésy de valorar así, basándose en criterios precisos y comprensibles, las consecuencias económicas, potencialmente significativas, de dichas cláusulas para sus obligaciones financieras.
Sustitución del índice por el EURIBOR
El Tribunal considera que la Directiva no se opone a que, caso de declararse nula la cláusula que fija un índice de referencia como el IRPH para el cálculo de los intereses variables, el juez nacional lo sustituya por otro índice legala falta de acuerdo en contrario de las partes del contrato (por ejemplo EURIBOR), siempre que el contrato de préstamo hipotecario no pudiera subsistir tras la supresión de la cláusula abusiva y que la anulación del contrato en su totalidad dejara al consumidor expuesto a consecuencias especialmente perjudiciales.
Con todo lo anterior, el Tribunal Europeono llega a la conclusión de que el IRPH sea abusivo, sino que deja en manos de los Tribunales españoles decidir si la cláusula que establece su aplicación es nula por falta de transparencia. Por tanto, deberá estudiarse caso por caso si la forma en la que se informó al cliente al comercializar los préstamos referenciados al IRPH cumplió con las exigencias de transparencia y claridad. Sólo si consideran que se incumplieron estos requisitos y el cliente no estaba debidamente informado, entonces podrá ser considerado nulo por abusivo, y ser sustituido por otro índice como el EURIBOR.
Finalmente, en cuanto a la retroactividadde las cantidades a devolver caso de ser declarada nula la cláusula, el Tribunal Europeo concluye que “no procede limitar temporalmente los efectos de la presente sentencia”, lo que viene a significar que la devolución se pueda hacer de forma retroactiva.
Photo by Didier Weemaels on Unsplash
Cookie | Duración | Descripción |
---|---|---|
__stidv | 1 year | This cookie is used by ShareThis. This cookie is used for sharing the content from the website to social networks. |
lang | This cookie is used to store the language preferences of a user to serve up content in that stored language the next time user visit the website. | |
mc_session_ids[default] | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the provider ReCaptcha. This is used by the Captcha plugin for the website forms. |
mc_session_ids[multi][0] | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the provider ReCaptcha. This is used by the Captcha plugin for the website forms. |
mc_session_ids[multi][1] | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the provider ReCaptcha. This is used by the Captcha plugin for the website forms. |
mc_session_ids[multi][2] | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the provider ReCaptcha. This is used by the Captcha plugin for the website forms. |
mc_session_ids[multi][3] | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the provider ReCaptcha. This is used by the Captcha plugin for the website forms. |
mc_session_ids[multi][4] | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the provider ReCaptcha. This is used by the Captcha plugin for the website forms. |
Cookie | Duración | Descripción |
---|---|---|
_gat | 1 minute | This cookies is installed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle the request rate to limit the colllection of data on high traffic sites. |
YSC | session | This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. |
Cookie | Duración | Descripción |
---|---|---|
__stid | 1 year | The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc. |
_ga | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
_gid | 1 day | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form. |
pxcelPage_c010 | 7 days | The domain of this cookie is owned by Sharethis. This is a analytical cookie used to provide unique identifier to the computer for traffic analysis to ShareThis. It helps in enabling sharing function on the website. |
Cookie | Duración | Descripción |
---|---|---|
_cc_aud | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
_cc_cc | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
_cc_dc | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
_cc_id | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
EE | 4 months | This cookie is set by exelator.com. The cookies is used to store information about users' visit to the website. The data includes the number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the pages that have been loaded. This information is used to provide the users customized and targeted ads. |
IDE | 1 year 24 days | Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. |
pi | 1 year | This is a targeting cookie, which is used for advertising.This cookie show the relevant adverts based on the visitors profile created by the cookie. |
pxrc | 2 months | The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement. |
rlas3 | 1 year | The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign. |
test_cookie | 15 minutes | This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
ud | 4 months | This cookie is set by exelator.com. The cookies is used to store information about users' visit to the website. The data includes the number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the pages that have been loaded. This information is used to provide the users customized and targeted ads. |
uuid2 | 3 months | This cookies is set by AppNexus. The cookies stores information that helps in distinguishing between devices and browsers. This information us used to select advertisements served by the platform and assess the performance of the advertisement and attribute payment for those advertisements. |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website. |
Cookie | Duración | Descripción |
---|---|---|
collect_chat_launcher_load | 1 month | No description |
collect_chat_page_load | 1 month | No description |
CONSENT | 16 years 10 months 10 days 13 hours 14 minutes | No description |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 1 year | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 1 year | No description |
fpestid | 1 year | No description |
st_samesite | session | No description |
zc | No description |