By Drd. Eugen Sârbu, attorney-at-law
Abstract
The institution of unusual clauses is a relatively new institution in the Romanian civil law, which has generated different interpretations in practice and in doctrine and which is aimed at preventing imbalances caused by the use of standard clauses. The standard terms serve the interests of the proposing party, setting out important aspects in the contractual relationship that is formed. They tend to change the contractual balance toward which each type of contract regulated by the legislator is approaching. This article analyses the legal conditions of unusual terms, which place one of the parties in a dominant position, shall entail. In particular, we will analyze (I) where the Romanian legislator was inspired to regulate the non-common clauses, (II) the conditions for a clause to be qualified as non-usual, (III) what penalty occurs in the event of non-compliance with the legal provisions on uncommon clauses, (IV) how we can derogate from the effect of the clauses, making them effective and holding the parties to perform that clause.