9 Information as to the terms of the contract

Modern law must also deal with lack of information as to the terms of the contract. The classical defences were developed at a time when most contracts were of a simple kind that the parties could understand readily. This too has changed, particularly with the development of longer-term (and therefore more complex) contracts and the use of standard terms. Standard terms are very useful but there is the risk that the parties may not be aware of their contents or may not fully understand them. Existing EC law addresses this problem and gives protection to consumers when the term in question is in a consumer contract and was not individually negotiated.1. However, as the laws of many Member States recognise, the problem may occur also in contracts between businesses. Particularly when one party is a small business that lacks expertise or where the relevant term is contained in a standard form contract document prepared by the party seeking to rely on the term, the other party may not be aware of the existence or extent of the term. The DCFR contains controls which deal with similar problems in contracts between businesses, though the controls are of a more restricted kind than for consumer contracts.