Sparkasse Südholstein

Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 18 June 2020 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Landgericht Kiel — Germany) — KH v Sparkasse Südholstein(Case C-639/18) 1(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Consumer protection — Distance marketing of financial services — Directive 2002/65/EC — Article 1 — Scope — Contracts concerning financial services consisting of an initial agreement followed by successive operations — Application of Directive 2002/65/EC to the first agreement alone — Article 2(a) — Concept of ‘contract concerning financial services’ — Amendment to a loan agreement altering the interest rate initially set)Language of the case: German Referring court Landgericht Kiel Parties to the main proceedings Applicant: KHDefendant: Sparkasse Südholstein Operative part of the judgment Article 2(a) of Directive 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002 concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services and amending Council Directive 90/619/EEC and Directives 97/7/EC and 98/27/EC must be interpreted as meaning that an agreed amendment to a loan agreement cannot be categorised as a ‘contract concerning financial services’, within the meaning of that provision, where the amendment does no more than alter the originally agreed rate of interest, but does not extend the term of the loan or alter its amount, and where the original clauses of the loan agreement provided for the agreement of such an amendment or, failing such...