The Transposition of the Mortgage Credit Directive and the Czech Perception of its Impacts

The Directive 2014/17/EU on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property of 4th February 2014 ("MCD") was recently transposed in the national Czech legal system by Act No. 257/2016 Coll., on consumer credit ("CCA") and immediately generated much criticism due to the perception of its impact, i.e. an alleged favoring of consumers taking mortgage credits. A critical Meta-Analysis of a primary data yield by questionnaires, as well as an investigative and comparative search and presentation of secondary data from a multitude of sources, along with the Socratic questioning method, led to a rather surprising conclusion. The hypothesis of the awareness, knowledge and willingness to use the new rules by consumers wanting to and/or taking consumer mortgage credits are confirmed, as well as the hypothesis that these new rules will lead to an increase of complications and administrative burdens, and costs. A cursory comparison shows that the Czech critical perception of the MCD, CCA and their impacts has parallels in EU member states. Indeed, the EU drive to create and support the effective and competitive Single European Mortgage Market in the name of the (alleged) consumer protection has several highly controversial features.