FantasticSearch

Definitions For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘consumer’ means a natural person who acts for purposes which are outside his or her trade, business or profession;

(2) ‘creditor’ means a natural or legal person who grants or promises to grant credit in the course of that person’s trade, business or profession;

(3) ‘credit agreement’ means an agreement whereby a creditor grants or promises to grant to a consumer credit in the form of a deferred payment, loan or other similar financial accommodation, except for agreements for the provision on a continuing basis of services or for the supply of goods of the same kind, where the consumer pays for such services or goods for the duration of their provision by means of instalments;

(4) ‘ancillary service’ means a service offered to the consumer in conjunction with the credit agreement;

(5) ‘total cost of the credit to the consumer’ means all the costs, including interest, commissions, taxes and any other kind of fees which the consumer is required to pay in connection with the credit agreement and which are known to the creditor, except for notarial costs; costs in respect of ancillary services relating to the credit agreement, in particular insurance premiums, are also included in the total cost of the credit to the consumer where, in addition, the conclusion of a contract regarding such ancillary services is compulsory in order to obtain the credit or to obtain it on the terms and conditions marketed;

(6) ‘total amount payable by the consumer’ means the sum of the total amount of credit and the total cost of the credit to the consumer;

(7) ‘annual percentage rate of charge’ or ‘APR’ means the total cost of the credit to the consumer, expressed as an annual percentage of the total amount of credit and calculated as set out in Article 30;

(8) ‘borrowing rate’ means the interest rate expressed as a fixed or variable percentage applied on an annual basis to the amount of credit drawn down;

(9) ‘fixed borrowing rate’ means the borrowing rate that the creditor and the consumer agree on in the credit agreement for the entire duration of the credit agreement, or several borrowing rates that the creditor and the consumer agree on in the credit agreement for partial periods for which the borrowing rates are determined exclusively by a fixed specific percentage; if not all borrowing rates are determined in the credit agreement, the borrowing rate shall be deemed to be fixed only for the partial periods for which the borrowing rates are determined exclusively by a fixed specific percentage agreed on the conclusion of the credit agreement;

(10) ‘total amount of credit’ means the ceiling or the total sums made available under a credit agreement;

(11) ‘durable medium’ means any instrument which enables the consumer to store information addressed personally to him or her in a way accessible for future reference for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

(12) ‘credit intermediary’ means a natural or legal person that is not acting as a creditor or notary and not merely introducing, either directly or indirectly, a consumer to a creditor, and who, in the course of that person’s trade, business or profession, for remuneration, which may take a pecuniary form or any other agreed form of financial consideration:

(a) presents or offers credit agreements to consumers;

(b) assists consumers by undertaking preparatory work or other pre-contractual administration in respect of credit agreements other than as referred to in point (a); or (c) concludes credit agreements with consumers on behalf of the creditor;

(13) ‘pre-contractual information’ means the information which is provided before the consumer is bound by a credit agreement or, where applicable, by the submission of a binding offer and which the consumer needs in order to be able to compare different credit offers and take an informed decision on whether to conclude the credit agreement;

(14) ‘profiling’ means profiling as defined in Article 4, point (4), of Regulation (EU) 2016/679;

(15) ‘tying practice’ means the offering or the selling of a credit agreement in a package with other distinct financial products or services where the credit agreement is not made available to the consumer separately;

(16) ‘bundling practice’ means the offering or the selling of a credit agreement in a package with other distinct financial products or services where the credit agreement is also made available to the consumer separately but not necessarily on the same terms or conditions as when offered bundled with those other products or services;

(17) ‘advisory services’ means personal recommendations to a consumer in respect of one or more transactions relating to credit agreements and that constitute a separate activity from the granting of a credit and from the credit intermediation activities as set out in point (12);

(18) ‘overdraft facility’ means an explicit credit agreement whereby a creditor makes available to a consumer funds which exceed the current balance in the consumer’s current account;

(19) ‘overrunning’ means a tacitly accepted overdraft whereby a creditor makes available to a consumer funds which exceed the current balance in the consumer’s current account or the agreed overdraft facility;

(20) ‘linked credit agreement’ means a credit agreement where:

(a) the credit or services in question serve exclusively to finance an agreement for the supply of specific goods or the provision of a specific service; and (b) those two agreements form, from an objective point of view, a commercial unit; a commercial unit shall be deemed to exist where the supplier of goods or the provider of services himself or herself finances the credit for the consumer or, if it is financed by a third party, where the creditor uses the services of the supplier of goods or the provider of services in connection with the marketing, conclusion or preparation of the credit agreement, or where the specific goods or the provision of a specific service are explicitly specified in the credit agreement;

(21) ‘early repayment’ means the full or partial discharge of the consumer’s obligations under a credit agreement, before the date agreed in the credit agreement;

(22) ‘debt advisory services’ means personalised assistance of a technical, legal or psychological nature provided by independent professional operators which are not, in particular, creditors or credit intermediaries as defined in this Directive, or credit purchasers or credit servicers as defined in Article 3, points (6) and (8), of Directive (EU) 2021/2167 of the European Parliament and of the Council , in favour of consumers who experience or might experience difficulties in meeting their financial commitments.