Will the imaginary active consumers please stand up? Case note to Walbusch Walter Busch: Case C-430/17 Walbusch Walter Busch GmbH & Co. KG v. Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs Frankfurt am Main eV, EU:C:2019:47
| Author | Joasia Luzak |
| Published date | 01 October 2019 |
| Date | 01 October 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X19856298 |
| Subject Matter | Case notes |
Case note
Will the imaginary active
consumers please stand up?
Case note to Walbusch Walter Busch
Case C-430/17 Walbusch Walter Busch GmbH & Co.
KG v. Zentrale zur Beka
¨mpfung unlauteren
Wettbewerbs Frankfurt am Main eV, EU:C:2019:47
Joasia Luzak*
Abstract
The questions posedto the Court of Justice of the EU in the recent caseof Walbusch Walter Busch
asked what qualifies as the means of communication with a limited space or time to display the
information and how detailed the disclosure on the right of withdrawal needs to be on such a
medium. Thejudgment in this case had to strikea balance between not limitingtraders’ opportunities
to use technological advances to reach consumers and one of the main objectives of consumer
protection: ensuring consumers have a chance to make fully informed transactional decisions.
Keywords
Consumer Rights Directive, right of withdrawal, pre-contractual information, active consumers,
medium of limited communication
1. Introduction
Articles 6 and 8 of the Consumer Rights Directive (CRD)
1
oblige traders selling their goods at a
distance to transparently provide specific information to consumers, before consumers are bound
* Associate Professor, University of Exeter Law School, Exeter, United Kingdom; Visiting Associate Professor at the Centre
for the Study of European Contract Law, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Member of the Ius Com-
mune Research School
Corresponding author:
Joasia Luzak, University of Exeter Law School, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom.
E-mail: j.luzak@exeter.ac.uk
1. Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights [2011] OJ
L 304/64 (‘Consumer Rights Directive’).
Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law
2019, Vol. 26(5) 713–719
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1023263X19856298
maastrichtjournal.sagepub.com
MJ
MJ
To continue reading
Request your trial