Freie Universität Berlin :: Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft :: Institut für Internationales Privatrecht

impressum :: home

  




  European Consumer Law  

 

 

  

European Consumer Law
   
Introduction

  1. Aspects of EC Consumer Protection

  2. Defining 'the consumer'

  3. History of the European Community

  4. Promoting consumer choice (Art. 28 EC)

  5. Community Law Databases


I. Aspects of EC Consumer Protection

  1. Consumer Choice
    The EC treaty as a motor of consumer choice, namely the freedom of trade and services (Art. 28, 49 EC) and prohibition of anti-competitive behaviour (Art. 81, 82 EC)

  2. Contract Law Directives
    Doorstep Selling, Consumer Credit (1986), Consumer Credit (2008) Package Travel, Unfair contract terms, Time Sharing, Distance Selling, Distance Marketing of Financial Services, Consumer Sales

  3. Product Liability
    Product Liability Directive

  4. Unfair Commercial Practices
    Misleading and Comparative Adverstising, Television Broadcasting; Indication of Prices, Unfair Commercial Practices

  5. Conflict of Law Rules
    Art. 6 Rome I Regulation

  6. Access to Justice
    Art. 15 et seq. Brussels-I-Regulation, Injunctions Directive, Consumer Complaints Form, Legal Aid Directive

  7. Data Protection
    Directives on the Protection of Personal Data in general, in the electronic communications and telecommunications sector.

  8. Protecting Consumers' Health
    Safety of agricultural products and foodstuffs, i.e. Reg. 178/2002, Cosmetics, presentation and labelling of food and other products, i.e. Directive 2001/83, dangerous substances, i.e. Directive 1999/45, and finally, product safety.



II. Who is 'the consumer'?

 The consumer contract law directives give the following definition:
'any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business or profession'.

Following the case law of the European Court of Justice, a person acting for dual or mixed purposes (private and professional) will in most cases not be considered a consumer. Regarding Art. 13 et seq. of the Brussels Convention, the Court held in Gruber (para. 39):

'It is already clearly apparent from the purpose of Articles 13 to 15 of the Brussels Convention, namely to properly protect the person who is presumed to be in a weaker position than the other party to the contract, that the benefit of those provisions cannot, as a matter of principle, be relied on by a person who concludes a contract for a purpose which is partly concerned with his trade or profession and is therefore only partly outside it. It would be otherwise only if the link between the contract and the trade or profession of the person concerned was so slight as to be marginal and, therefore, had only a negligible role in the context of the supply in respect of which the contract was concluded, considered in its entirety.'

Furthermore, the Court in Gruber (para. 51) pointed out that 'the court seised must in that case also determine whether the other party to the contract could reasonably have been unaware of the private purpose of the supply because the supposed consumer had in fact, by his own conduct with respect to the other party, given the latter the impression that he was acting for business purposes.'

Finally, traders who advertise the sale of their business in a periodical are not consumers (Di Pinto).



III. History of the European Community

For the various stages of the Treaty Establishing the European Community see http://www.unizar.es.

The Lisbon Treaty, which is also called the Reform Treaty, has been ratified by most Member States and its entry into force was originally projected for 1 January 2009. However, the future of the Lisbon Treaty is currently uncertain as a result of its rejection in the Irish referendum. The ratification process is also stalled in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. The following website provides help in Understanding the Lisbon Treaty. You can find charts explaining the Lisbon Treaty on http://www.eur-charts.eu/. For an ironical comment on the Reform Treaty, refer to Timothy Garton Ash: This treaty is a mess, but it will free Europe to do more important things.



IV. Promoting consumer choice

The freedoms of trade and services (Art. 28, 49 EC) aim at establishing a more efficient, border-free market which allows the informed consumer to exercise choice in accordance with his or her own preferences. Click here for an overview on Art. 28 EC.



V. Community law databases

  1. Eur-Lex

    2. Comprehensive database of EC legislation, case law and important communication
    Allowing for, i.e., search by natural number of a legislative act, celex number, Official Journal reference, European Court Report Reference
    Note: Eur-Lex allows for a bilingual display of its documents; click on the respective language icons immediately in the beginning of a legislative act or court decision.

  2. PreLex

    3. Database on inter-institutional procedures (Monitoring of the decision-making process between institutions)

  3. Curia
    4. Database of the European Court of Justice, which allows for search of judgments, orders, opinions and references by courts of the Member States, i.e., by ECJ case number. Note: Court decisions rendered before June 1997 are not contained in this database, but may be accessed via Eur-Lex.

  4. EC Consumer Law Compendium: A database offering access information on eight consumer law directives and their transposition into the laws of 25 EU Member States, including case-law, bibliography and a comparative study.


>