The involvement of EU law in business-to-consumer (B2C) private law relationships is bounded. Regulation originates partly at EU level and partly in national law, leading to fragmentation and legal uncertainty. To counter this problem, this chapter aims to give a new perspective on lawmaking in...

In EU free movements regulation, the average consumer is regarded as someone who is ‘reasonably circumspect' and able to look after his own interests. National legislation aiming at offering a higher degree of protection is often struck down, in this light, as creating unjustified barriers to...

In European consumer law, the standard of consumer protection in positive harmonisation through Directives is much more consumer-friendly than in negative harmonisation through free movements law, where trade interests come first. With knock-on effects in national laws, this double-headed...

This chapter aims to give an overview of the contractual issues that have arisen in relation to the use of data. Since the use of data has far-reaching consequences for consumer markets, the chapter focuses on issues that have arisen in those markets and the regulatory responses that have...

Divergence in European consumer law is increased by the different approaches to ‘average consumers' found in national laws and in EU law. The ‘average consumer' concept of EU law relies on the ability of consumers to make rational decisions. In accordance with this prototype of a...

EU consumer law generally refers to rights which facilitate the economic participation of EU citizens in the internal market. Social rights, which extend to other aspects of consumers' lives such as employment, social inclusion, and environmental protection, are perceived to fall outside the...

This paper explores what normative choices have been made with regard to the image(s) of the consumer in European regulatory private law (ERPL), and whether these choices may (or may not) need revision as insights on consumers' needs for protection evolve

The proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to place more responsibility on online platform operators to control information published by users on their websites. That is a welcome development in the light of scandals concerning fake news and the surreptitious influencing of voters through...