CONSUMER LAW

“ From the definition to a specific

analysis”

Eleonora Giuliani
Denise Citti
Aurora Corsetti
Virginia Catinari
 What is consumer law?
“ is a strange area of law: it has direct implications for those who are directly
affected by the law so both consumers and traders”

Numerous initiatives to reform and modernize consumer

law both at the domestic and European levels.

● Minimum
● White Paper in
harmonization
2009
approach
● Consumer Rights
● Maximum
Bill entered into
harmonization
Parliament on 23
approach
January 2014
 What are the objectives of law reform?
The REASONS to undertake any law reform project can be different:

WHY? ● To change the law in a particular area.

● To simplify an area of law which has become too complex or where there is
such an amount of conflicting case-law that it is difficult to work out
exactly what the legal position is.

Different APPROACHES to give effect to these objectives:

● Simplification: about “substantive” simplification, in which the only the substance of the
legal rules is left to remove complexities which have become otiose.
● Ensuring coherence and consistency : allied with the idea of simplification,it is a major
objective to ensure that the law is coherent and consistent.
● Consolidation: simplification and making the law more coherent are objectives which can
be attained in various ways.
● Codification: codification results in a code which could include all the relevant provisions
from existing legislation
 UK CONSUMER LAW

UK consumer law

Administrative/regulatory
Private law rules Criminal law rules
provisions

Consumer law is a complex amalgam of domestic law and European Union law.
For what concerns private law elements we have legislations both in the areas of contract and tort law.
Contract law principles govern the formation,performance and discharge of all contracts and we have
no distinction between consumer and non-consumer contracts in case law.The contract in question can
be identified as “consumer contract”
It is possible to find variations or particular provisions specifically aimed at consumer contracts in
contract law.
What is going to occur next is the actualization of two main types of control over contract terms.
TYPES OF CONTROL OVER
CONTRACT TERMS
1)The Unfair Contract Terms Act(UCTA)
which provides stricter controls over
certain types of term in contracts where
one party is the consumer
2)The Unfair Terms in Consumer
Contracts Regulations, which is a statutory
instrument dealing with consumer
contracts adopted to implement EU
Directives.
This parallelism was considered
problematic so Hugh BEALE started a
consolidation of these two measures
leading to the Consumer Rights Bill in
2014
CASE LAW IN THE
PRIVATE LAW FIELD
We can find many legislative measures for consumer
aspects of contract law also in tort law. Case law was also
added both from domestic courts and the CJEU which
interpreted them.
In addition to legislation and case-law in the private
field,consumer law includes Administrative Law or
regulatory provisions derived from domestic and EU
law.An example is the Consumer Protection from Unfair
Trading Regulations which implemented the Directive or
Unfair Commercial Practices.
So CONSUMER LAW consists of:
● consumer-specific measures(of general application)
● statute and case-law
● domestic and EU law
Putting together different sources of law
Complexity is a problem for UK consumer law because of major lack of coherency.A key factor of Uk
consumer law consists of a small number of consumers taking their claims to court( barely any case
makes it to the High Court). This raises 2 issues:
1. It becomes more difficult to figure out how the law works “in action”
2. Consumers will not involve the legal process when dealing with disputes

Are consumers able to enforce their legal rights not

involving the formal legal process when seeking redress?
Even if consumers seek for advice, the complexity and incoherence of consumer
law make difficult to provide consumers with an advice easy for them to
understand and to act upon.
● Consumers solves disputes on an informal basis
● The area concerning consumers’ rights must be accessible to
consumers ,traders and advisers
● Consumers’ rights must be stated

We face the publication of a White Paper in 2009 by the UK BIS with

the aim to bring together current statutes and statutory instruments and
remove inconsistencies.
 CONSUMER RIGHTS BILL
It was presented in June 2013 and entered into Parliament in 2014. It
provides some implication of the law like the quality requirements of goods
supplied to consumers , but on the other hand there are many aspects not
included in this Bill.The Consumer Rights Bill is divided in 3 main parts:

1. This part deals with aspects of consumer contracts regarding the supply of digital
content,services and goods. It concerns the quality and fitness of goods found in
three separate acts into one place.It is possible to achieve greater simplification
and coherence by adopting the analysis in the Law Commission’s report about the
different stages involved in the right to reject the goods or terminate the
contracts under the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

2. This part regards consolidation of rules which contain unfair terms in consumer
contracts. Remotion of the split between Unfair Contract Terms Act of 1977 and
the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999(single set of rules).

3. Improved provisions for the enforcement of consumer law and new measures
allowing for collective redress.
UK consumer law: to sum up

● The Bill provide clarification of Consumer law.

● The Consumer Contract regulation and the Consumer Protection from Unfair
Trading Regulation (2008) are both separate from the Bill.
● The Consumer Protection Regulation (2014) is a simple amendment inserting
new provision into existing regulations introducing new rights to consumers.
(Surprisingly still not included in the Consumer Rights Bill)
● Legislation needs to be taken under control for two main reasons:
1) To ensure that coherence and consistency is maintained in the light of
relevant court rulings
2) To make law more accessible to who ,like customers and trades, are more
affected by it
BEALE suggested a RESTATEMENT of Common law
rules
Restatement = bringing together in one place an exposition of the law as it
stands based on common law and relevant statutory provisions to assist those
charged with the task of applying existing law;

This model later would adopt features of other well-known restatements like “
the Draft Common Frame of Reference” or “ The Principles of European
Contract Law” and so on.

Even if different a Restatement needs to have 4 common elements to all

1) A particular legal rule is stated

2) There is a complementary which expands on the meaning and purpose of
the rule
3) There are examples given as how the rule operates in practice
4) There is an indication of the legal sources (legislation and cases) on which
the particular rule is based
 COMMON LAW VS CIVIL LAW COUNTRIES

COMMON LAW COUNTRIES (UK) CIVIL LAW COUNTRIES

● difficulties in implementing Level and quality of consumer protection

general EU written law
● short circuit between
inaccurate internal rules,
overlaps with European
directives and internal case law
increased after EU harmonization and
implementation in domestic law.
FRANCE Code de la consommation
ITALY Codice del consumo

GERMANY Integration in BGB

Beale suggestion for Restatement

based on US experience
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
CODIFICATION AND RESTATEMENT
The purpose of codifying the law is generally to bring together legal rules in one
statute. So there is a parallel with the restatement idea considered here
CODIFICATION
RESTATEMENT
● is generally intended to be complete
● a legally binding text ● should remain flexible and capable of
● appropriate legislative and formal further development
procedure to adopt, amend or update ● non-binding text
this text ● can be updated more quickly and with
greater ease than any parliamentary text
 CONSUMERS
Consumers’ contracts in Europe are governed by the law of
the place where he/she lives n order to protect them and
make it easier for them.

Two different approaches can be taken:

1) opt-in
2) opt-out

This second one is the best to protect consumers’ interests

because all the existing rules of the Directives relating to
consumer contracts would be incorporated.
Thank you so
much for your
attention!!