HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER LAW. Ed by Geraint Howells, Iain Ramsay and Thomas Wilhelmsson with David Kraft Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (www.e-elgar.co.uk), Research Handbooks in International Law, 2010. ix + 592 pp. ISBN 9781847201287. £175.
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2011.0076 |
| Pages | 509-510 |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
The
It is a noticeable trend in European consumer protection law that consumer protection can be achieved through empowering and informing consumers themselves. Whereas consumers in the UK benefit from specific substantive protections, such as the Sale of Goods Act, consumer protection in the European Union tends to focus on the informed consumer. This is done through ensuring that consumers have access to the information they (are presumed to) need in order to enter into a transaction and, where the trader fails to provide that information, the consumer is typically given rights to help redress the imbalance, such as an extended right of withdrawal. Accordingly, European directives such as the Distance Selling Directive, the E-Commerce Directive, and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, all focus on the need to provide consumers with information, to help them identify the trader (in the case of online transactions, for example) and to identify accurately the goods or services. Providing such information addresses the “information asymmetry”, whereby there is an imperfect distribution of information, and consumers are thought to be at a disadvantage because they lack the information about the goods and market conditions which is available to the supplier. Consumers are treated however, perhaps optimistically, as intelligent and autonomous individuals, capable of using this information appropriately where it is provided. This is expressed through the benchmark of the “average consumer” being someone who is “reasonably...
To continue reading
Request your trial