No. In Slovakia a dispute with a consumer may be resolved in arbitration only on the basis of a separate consumer arbitration agreement, which is separate in content and in form from the purchase contract or the standard terms and names a permanent arbitration court entered in the Ministry’s list. Even such an agreement does not prevent the consumer from bringing an action before a court, and the trader cannot effectively object that the court lacks jurisdiction where consumer arbitration proceedings have not yet begun. Czech law excludes disputes under consumer contracts from arbitration altogether.
Standard terms are often assembled from several templates, and a sentence stating that disputes are resolved by an arbitration court may find its way into them from terms intended for businesses. Against a consumer, however, such a sentence has no effect. Act No. 244/2002 Coll. on Arbitration has removed consumer disputes from its regime: under Section 1(4), it does not govern disputes between a trader and a consumer arising from a consumer contract which may be resolved in consumer arbitration. That is regulated by a separate statute, Act No. 335/2014 Coll., and its conditions are strict.
Only a separate agreement and only a licensed permanent arbitration court
A consumer dispute may be resolved in arbitration only on the basis of a consumer arbitration agreement (Section 2(1) of Act No. 335/2014 Coll.). That agreement must meet several conditions at once:
- it must be in writing, separate in content and in form from the consumer contract, and must not contain terms unrelated to the arbitration (Section 3(2)), so an article of the standard terms will not do instead,
- it must name a permanent arbitration court entered in the list kept by the Ministry, state that court’s website carrying its rules of procedure, and contain the notice set out in the model in the annex to the Act (Section 3(1) and (3)),
- it must not name a particular arbitrator (Section 3(4)),
- conclusion of the purchase contract or another consumer contract must not be conditional on its conclusion (Section 3(5)).
Consumer disputes may be decided only by a permanent arbitration court whose founder holds a licence from the Ministry of Justice (Section 10(2)), and only by an arbitrator entered in the list of arbitrators for consumer disputes (Section 4(1)). If you wish to use arbitration with consumers, first check whether a court exists that meets those conditions and will accept your disputes. A trader who concludes such agreements with consumers repeatedly must inform them about it, to the extent of the statutory notice, on its website and on the premises where it concludes contracts (Section 3(8)).
Even a valid agreement does not bind the consumer
The greatest difference from contracts between businesses is that even a valid consumer arbitration agreement does not deprive the consumer of the option of going to court:
A consumer arbitration agreement does not restrict the consumer’s right to apply to a court.
— Section 3(6) of Act No. 335/2014 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
The consumer may therefore bring an action before an ordinary court, and neither the trader nor its legal successor can effectively object that the court lacks jurisdiction, unless consumer arbitration proceedings in the matter have already begun. For this purpose, the proceedings begin on delivery of the application to the consumer (Section 3(6)). A trader can therefore rely on the arbitration agreement only where the application to commence consumer arbitration is delivered to the consumer before the consumer brings an action before a court.
And on sales into Czechia?
The Czech Act No. 216/1994 Sb. on Arbitration permits an arbitration agreement only in respect of pecuniary disputes, and expressly excludes from it disputes arising from contracts concluded between a business and a consumer (Section 2(1)). In terms for Czech customers, an arbitration clause therefore has no place at all.
What to do about it
If you have an arbitration clause in your standard terms for consumers, we recommend deleting it and setting the dispute resolution section according to the ordinary rules. We review the terms within our e-shop standard terms service; further problematic wording is examined in the question on invalid clauses in standard terms. In contracts with businesses an arbitration clause is a legitimate choice. What it should contain is explained in the question on what an arbitration clause must contain, and we conduct disputes before arbitrators within our arbitration service.
This answer provides general information on the law as at 12 September 2026. It does not constitute legal services or replace an assessment of an individual case. The details of your situation may differ. Book a consultation to discuss them.
