Paola Faccini Dori v Recreb Srl [1994]

Council Directive 85/577/ required the Member States, inter alia, to adopt certain rules to govern relations between traders and consumers by December 23, 1987. Italy took no steps to implement the Directive until 1992. On January 19, 1989, without having been previously approached by her, a company concluded a contract away from their business premises with a woman for an English language correspondence course.

Some days later, the woman informed the company by letter that she was cancelling her order. The company replied that it had assigned its claim to a third party. The woman wrote to the third party confirming that she had cancelled her subscription, indicating, inter alia, that she relied on the right of cancellation provided for by the Directive.

Held, that Arts. 1(1) and 2 of the Directive were of direct effect. The latitude allowed to the Member States by Arts. 4 and 5 did not affect the precise and unconditional nature of the provisions of the Directive at issue. On the issue of horizontal direct effect, the case law on relying on directives against state entities was based on the fact that, under Art.189, a directive is binding only in relation to each Member State to which it is addressed and…