Applicability of the consumer´s code of defense to bank operations

Abstract

The Consumer´s Code of Defense has brought significant changes to the juridical relation of consumption, because it is a general code of consumption with coercive and of public order norms. There are doctrinaire discussions on the applicability of the Consumer´s Code of Defense to bank operations, but there are segments that deny it. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that the Consumer´s Code of Defense tutors all bank operations, including the credit contracts which are a kind of the genre bank contracts, for they are juridical relations of consumption, with the following elements: suppliers, consumers, products or services. The credit exerts an important role on the current society of consumption because it is the supporter of the entrepreneurial and personal activities. The contracts of bank credit are adhesion-like because they have clauses and general conditions established unilaterally and previously by the banks (authoritative agent or active pole of the contractual relationship) to the detriment of the borrowerconsumer (adherent or passive pole) who has no choice to discuss or modify substantially the contract content. Thus, the wide occurrence of the Consumer´s Code of Defense to bank operations is supported especially to the credit contracts, protecting the consumer (individual or legal entity) exposed to abusive practices performed by the banks in juridical relations of consumption of the modern society.