ABSTRACT
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) accepts the German Bundesgerichtshof's interpretation of German law, according to which the consumer who has cancelled the credit contract is liable to repay the credit immediately and also to pay interests for that time. After the German reunification of 1990, Germany immensely subsidised investment into new buildings and into the restoration of old buildings, in particular by granting tax relief to private investors. Together with the anticipated rental income from these buildings, these tax reliefs could be sufficient to pay for the whole purchase price. The obligation to pay interest certainly makes sense where the consumer has reinvested the money or made use of the credit in other ways. A barrier to the consumer's claims is the agency problem that forms part of the case of Crailsheimer Volksbank. The Landgericht Bochum and the Oberlandesgericht Bremen referred the cases of Schulte and of Crailsheimer Volksbank to the ECJ.
