"Informazioni generali" e "informazioni personalizzate" nella nuova direttiva sui mutui ipotecari ai consumatori

“General information” and “pre-contractual information” in the new consumer mortgage credit directiveFollowing the usual assumption about the informational asymmetry which affects consumer contracting, the recent European directive on “credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property” (dir. 17/2014/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council), like other pieces of EU legislation on consumer protection, imposes special duties of information upon the prospective creditor.Such duties regard both information that prospective creditors must make available to the public of consumers (“General information” of article 13 of the Directive) and “personalised” information that prospective creditors must provide to the specific consumer involved in negotiations with a particular creditor on a credit transaction (Pre-contractual information of article 14 of the Directive). As regards personalised information, special importance is attached to the “European standardised information sheet” (a standard form which has to handled to the consumer before he or she is permanently bound by the credit contract) and to the provision of a time period granted to the consumer for the assessment of the information given.The directive leaves to national legislations and, partly, to national Courts the task of determining both the technicalities for the legal implementation of such “time for reflection” and the legal consequences of the infringement of such duties of information.