(1) Unless otherwise provided, the provisions of this Chapter apply to consumer credit agreements. Consumer credit agreements are general-purpose consumer credit agreements and consumer credit agreements relating to immovable property.
(2) General-purpose consumer credit agreements are non-gratuitous credit agreements between a trader as lender and a consumer as borrower. The following contracts are not general-purpose consumer credit agreements:
1. contracts in which the net loan amount (Article 247 section 3 (2) of the Introductory Act to the Civil Code (Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuche)) is less than 200 euros,
2. contracts by which the liability of the borrower is restricted to a thing surrendered to the lender as a pledge,
3. contracts according to which the borrower is to repay the loan within three months and only low costs are agreed,
4. contracts which employers conclude with their employees as an additional benefit to the employment contract at a lower effective annual interest rate than the going market rate (section 6 of the Ordinance on Price Information (Preisangabenverordnung)) and which are not offered to other persons,
5. contracts which are only concluded with a limited group of individuals on the basis of legal provisions in the public interest if conditions are agreed in the contract for the borrower that are more favourable to the borrower than the going market rates and a maximum of the going borrowing rate on the market is agreed.
6. contracts which are consumer credit agreements relating to immovable property or equity release credit agreements as defined in subsection (3).
(3) Consumer credit agreements relating to immovable property are non-gratuitous credit agreements between a trader as lender and a consumer as borrower if
1. they are secured by a mortgage or by a charge on land or
2. they are intended to serve the acquisition or the preservation of the property right to plots of land, to existing buildings or buildings yet to be constructed, or the acquisition or preservation of rights equivalent to real property.
Agreements in accordance with subsection (2) sentence 2 no. 4 are not consumer credit agreements relating to immovable property. Solely section 491a (4) is applicable to consumer credit agreements relating to immovable property in accordance with subsection (2) sentence 2 no. 5. Equity release credit agreements are not consumer credit agreements relating to immovable property if the creditor
1. makes lump-sum payments or periodic payments or disburses the credit in other forms and in return receives merely a sum deriving from the future proceeds of the sale of a residential immovable property, or acquires a right to a residential immovable property and
2. demands repayment only after the death of the consumer, unless the consumer violates the provisions of the contract, which will allow the creditor to terminate the contract.
(4) Section 358 subsections (2) and (4), as well as sections 491a to 495 and sections 505a to 505d, do not apply to credit agreements incorporated in a court record drawn up in compliance with the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure (Zivilprozessordnung) or determined by a court order on the establishment and the content of a settlement concluded between the parties if the record or order sets out the borrowing rate, the costs of the loan invoiced when the contract was concluded, and the prerequisites based on which the borrowing rate or the costs may be adjusted.