3 Review(s)

This volume analyses the theory and practice of European consumer protection in the context of consolidation initiatives seen, inter alia, in the revision of the Consumer Acquis, the Draft Common Frame of Reference and the proposal for an EU Consumer Rights Directive. The issues addressed are all the more significant given the revisions to the proposed Directive, the appointment of an 'Expert Group on a Common Frame of Reference' and the Commission's 2010 Green Paper on progress towards a European Contract Law. The contributions to this volume point to the arrival of a contested moment in EU consumer protection, questioning the arrival of the 'empowered' consumer and uncovering the fault lines between consumer protection and other goals. What emerges is a model of poly-contextual EU consumer protection law, a model that challenges the assumptions in both the 2010 Green Paper and the revised proposed Consumer Rights Directive. Table of Contents Introduction Part I. Consumer Protection Strategies and Mechanisms in the EU: 1. From minimal to full to 'half' harmonisation 2. Comment: the future of EU consumer law – the end of harmonisation? 3. Two levels, one standard? The multi-level regulation of consumer protection in Europe 4. A modernisation for European consumer law? 5. Effective enforcement of consumer law: the comeback of public law and criminal law 6. E-consumers and effective protection: the online dispute resolution system Immaculada 7. Unfair terms and the draft common frame of reference: the role of non-legislative harmonisation and administrative co-operation? Part II. Conceptualising Vulnerability: 8. The definition of consumers in EU consumer law 9. Recognising the limits of transparency in EU consumer law 10. The best interests of the child and EU consumer law and policy: a major gap between theory and practice? 11. Protecting consumers of gambling services: some preliminary thoughts on the relationship with European consumer protection law Part III. Contextualising Consumer Protection in the EU: 12. Consumer protection and overriding mandatory rules in the new Rome I regulation 13. Determining the applicable law for breach of competition claims in the Rome II regulation and the need for effective consumer collective redress 14. Horse sales: the problem of consumer contracts from a historical perspective 15. The role of private litigation in market regulation: beyond 'legal origins' 16. Advertising, free speech and the consumer 17. Are consumer rights human rights? 18. Consumer protection in a normative context: the building blocks of a consumer citizenship practice 19. Recommended changes to the definitions of 'auction' and 'public auction' in the proposal for a directive on consumer rights 20. Consumer law regulation in the Czech Republic in the context of EU law: theory and practice 21. Resistance towards the unfair terms directive in Poland: the interaction between the consumer acquis and a post-socialist legal culture Part IV. Conclusions: 22. European consumer protection: theory and practice.