Book Review: New Frontiers of Consumer Protection — The Interplay between Private and Public Enforcement
| Published date | 01 March 2010 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1001700106 |
| Date | 01 March 2010 |
| Author | Franziska Weber |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
17 MJ 1 (2010) 87
BOOK REVIEW
Fabrizio Cafa ggi and Hans-W. Micklit z (eds.), New Frontiers of Consumer Protection
– e Interplay Between Private an d Public Enforcement, Intersentia 20 09, 451 pp.,
paperback, € 95, ISBN 978–90–5 095–778–6
Taking the w ide consensus among scholars that to enforce consumer protect ion law
adequately a mix of public and private enforcement is needed as a starting point,1 this
book promises to put the interplay of public and private collective judicial enforcement
into perspective. With a glittering list of contributors this perspective is indeed elaborated
upon excellently, citing views from w ithin European countries (East a nd West), also the
US and Canada.
With a general focus on (trans-border) aggregate lit igation the book is subdivided in
four part s, framed by a detailed i ntroduction and conclusion ( both written by Cafaggi
and Mick litz).2 e classic ation goes as follows: 1. comparative institutional a nalysis,
2. public and private enforcement in consumer protection, 3. compari ng remedies in
private law enforcement and 4. trans-border litigat ion and international private law.
e authors touch to varying degrees upon remedies, players and their trade-os and
the right level and tim ing of legal interventions. Aer the introduction a detailed analysis
of the institutional dimension of consu mer law enforcement in North A merica a nd
Europe follows in Part I: while Issacharo and Samuel show the US side, Stuyck presents
the European perspective, elaborating on the EU’s w ide law-making competences in
consumer law for the possible introduction of aggregate l itigation and contr asting the
approach to consu mer wit h that to competition law. Ba kardijeva Engelbrekt gives a
1 F. C afaggi and H. Micklitz (eds.), New Frontiers of Consume r Prote ction – e Inter play Between
Private and Public Enforcemen t, (Intersentia, Antwerp – Ox ford – Portland 2009), p. 39. See a lso Van
den Bergh , ‘Should Con sumer Protect ion Law Be Publicly Enforce d?’, in W. van Boom and M . Loos,
Collective Enforce ment of Consumer Law: Securing Complian ce in Europe rough Private Group Action
and Public Authori ty Intervention, (Europ ean Law Publishin g, Groningen 2007), p. 201; W. van Boom,
‘Ecacious Enforcement in Contract a nd Tort’, (Boom Jur idische Uitgever s, e Hag ue 2006), p. 47.
at a joint use is prefe rable has been stressed , for example, in Shavell, ‘Liability for H arm ver sus
Regulation of S afety’, 13 Journal of Legal St udies 2 (1984), p. 357–374.
2 It must be mentioned that the editors – as they alre ady made clear in earlier publications (e.g. F. Cafaggi,
and H. Mickl itz, ‘Administrati ve and Judicial Colle ctive Enforcement of Consu mer Law in the US and
the European Community’, EUI Worki ng Paper LAW 2007/22) – prefer to speak of admin istrative
and judici al enforcement de spite labelli ng it the ‘pub lic and priva te enforcement div ide’. As the book
title uses the terms ‘public and pr ivate en forcement’ and t he major ity of contri butors st ick to the
terminolog y, this book review wi ll also follow the tr aditional label ling.
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