CLAB Europa – The European Database on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts

Despite its great potential for being a valuable research tool for practitioners and academics dealing with European comparative law, CLAB Europa, the publicly accessible electronic database on unfair terms in consumer contracts, has largely been ignored to date. The database’s wealth of data and its sophisticated query functions allow useful conclusions regarding the use of and the case law on standard terms in consumer contracts from both a national and a Community law perspective. This is illustrated by statistical analyses of parts of the CLAB data set. However, there are also shortcomings with regard to the quality and the presentation of the data which have to be overcome in order to make full use of the potential of CLAB. Copyright Springer 2005