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1. Member States shall require that the creditor and, where applicable, the credit intermediary explicitly inform the consumer, in the context of a given transaction, whether advisory services are being or can be provided to the consumer.

2. Member States shall require that the creditor and, where applicable, the credit intermediary, before the provision of advisory services or the conclusion of a contract for the provision of such services, provide the consumer with the following information on paper or another durable medium chosen by the consumer:

(a) an indication of whether the recommendation will be based on only their own product range or on a wide range of products from across the market in accordance with paragraph 3, point (c);

(b) where applicable, an indication of the fee payable by the consumer for the advisory services or, where the amount of such fee cannot be established at the time when the information is provided, the method used for its calculation. The information referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph may be provided to the consumer in the form of additional pre-contractual information in accordance with Article 10(6), second subparagraph.

3. Where advisory services are provided to consumers, Member States shall require that creditors and, where applicable, credit intermediaries:

(a) obtain the necessary information regarding the consumer’s financial situation, preferences and objectives related to the credit agreement, in order for the creditor or the credit intermediary to recommend credit agreements that are suitable to the consumer;

(b) assess the financial situation and the needs of the consumer on the basis of the information referred to in point (a), which shall be up to date at the time of the assessment, taking into account reasonable assumptions as to the risks to the consumer’s financial situation over the term of the recommended credit agreement;

(c) consider a sufficiently large number of credit agreements in their product range and on that basis recommend one or more credit agreements from among that product range that are suitable to the consumer’s needs, financial situation and personal circumstances;

(d) act in the best interests of the consumer; and (e) give the consumer a record of the recommendation provided, on paper or on another durable medium chosen by the consumer and specified in the contract for the provision of advisory services.

4. Member States may prohibit the use of the terms ‘advice’ and ‘advisor’ or similar terms when the advisory services are being marketed and provided to consumers by creditors or, where applicable, credit intermediaries. Where Member States do not prohibit the use of the terms ‘advice’ and ‘advisor’ or similar terms, they shall impose the following conditions on the use of the term ‘independent advice’ or ‘independent advisor’ by creditors and credit intermediaries providing advisory services:

(a) creditors and, where applicable, credit intermediaries shall consider a sufficiently large number of credit agreements available on the market; and (b) credit intermediaries shall not be remunerated for the advisory services by one or more creditors. Point (b) of the second subparagraph shall apply only where the number of creditors considered is less than a majority of the market. Member States may impose more stringent requirements for the use of the terms ‘independent advice’ or ‘independent advisor’ by creditors and, where applicable, credit intermediaries.

5. Member States shall require that creditors and, where applicable, credit intermediaries warn a consumer when a credit agreement may induce a specific risk for the consumer considering the consumer’s financial situation.

6. Member States shall ensure that advisory services may only be provided by creditors and, where applicable, credit intermediaries. Member States may, by way of derogation from the first subparagraph, allow other persons than those referred to in the first subparagraph to provide advisory services where one of the following conditions is fulfilled:

(a) the advisory services are provided in an incidental manner in the course of a professional activity that is regulated by legal or regulatory provisions or a code of ethics which do not exclude the provision of those services;

(b) the advisory services are provided in the context of management of existing debt by insolvency practitioners and where that management activity is regulated by legal or regulatory provisions;

(c) the advisory services are provided in the context of management of existing debt by public or voluntary providers of debt advisory services as referred to in Article 36 which do not operate on a commercial basis;

(d) the advisory services are provided by persons that are authorised and supervised by competent authorities.