Judgment_paragraph 69 · Banco Santander SA v Mahamadou Demba and Mercedes Godoy Bonet and Rafael Ramón Escobedo Cortés v Banco de Sabadell SA (C-96/16, C-94/17)

69The case-law of the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) at issue in the main proceedings admittedly does not appear to come within the ambit of the stricter measures which may be adopted by the Member States in order to ensure a higher level of protection for consumers pursuant to Article 8 of that directive, given, in particular, that –– as stated by the Spanish Government at the hearing before the Court –– that case-law does not appear to have the force of law or constitute a source of law in the Spanish legal order. However, the fact remains that the development of a criterion derived from case-law, such as that identified in the present case by the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court), is wholly consistent with the objective of consumer protection pursued by that directive. It follows from Article 3(1) of Directive 93/13 and from the general scheme of the directive that the latter does not so much aim to guarantee an overall contractual balance between the rights and obligations of the parties to the agreement as to prevent an imbalance between those rights and obligations from arising to the detriment of consumers.