The Law and Consumer Credit Information in the European Community


Book Description

This book examines the legal framework and compliance in the EC of consumer credit reporting and credit information sharing arrangements. It also looks at the issue of human rights, and the extent to which the right to privacy of consumers should be balanced against the aims of consumer credit reporting.




EU Competition Law, the Consumer Interest and Data Protection


Book Description

The legitimacy or illegitimacy of information exchanges between competitors remains a topical debate with regard to EU competition law and policy. This book reexamines the issue in the retail financial services sector, focusing on the peculiar problems that it poses for EU market integration, consumer policy and protection and the intersection with fundamental rights. It analyzes and reflects on the relevant case law and guidelines offered by the corresponding European authorities, providing a critique of the current approach and advancing the proposition that information markets themselves need attention, in addition to the markets that they serve. The book also advances new perspectives on cases in which consumers’ personal information is involved in the exchange, recognizing the inevitable interaction between EU competition law, the interests and protection of consumers and personal data protection. It suggests that the status quo under competition law is unsatisfactorily short sighted and that the EU should take a holistic approach (including information markets) to the analysis of competition law, reflecting consumer protection and fundamental rights aspects in the assessment.




Consumer Credit in the European Union


Book Description

Evidence taken before Sub-committee G (Social and Consumer Affairs).




Consumer Credit, Debt and Investment in Europe


Book Description

Produced under the auspices of an EU-funded Marie Curie research programme, this volume analyses vulnerability in European private law and scrutinises consumer protection in credit and investments in the context of the recent turmoil in financial markets and EU harmonisation initiatives in the area. It explores key issues such as responsible lending, the disclosure of information, consumer confidence, the regulation of consumer investment services and the protection of bank depositors. The chapters emanate from the 'Consumer Protection in Europe: Theory and Practice' duo colloquium which explored consumer protection in Europe in its theoretical and practical dimensions. These topics are even more relevant today given the passage of the Consumer Rights Directive, the appointment of an Expert Group on a common frame of reference, the Green Paper on European Contract Law and the ongoing deliberations surrounding the Common European Sales Law.




EU Consumer Law and Human Rights


Book Description

Exploring the relationship between fundamental rights and consumer law in the EU, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the joint implications of the Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It examines the potential tensions that may emerge between consumer protection objectives and economic, market-oriented goals.




Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law


Book Description

The Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Lawtakes stock of the evolution of this fascinating area of private law to date and identifies key themes for the future development of the law and research agendas. This major Handbook brings together contributions by leading academics from across the EU on the latest developments and controversies in these important areas of law. The Handbookis divided into three distinct and thematic parts: firstly, authors examine a range of cross-cutting issues relevant to both consumer and contract law. The second part discusses specific topics on EU consumer law, including the consumer image within EU law, information duties and unfair contract terms. The final part focuses on a number of important subjects which remain current in the development of EU contract law and presents a number of innovative solutions to the challenges presented in parts one and two. This timely and insightful Handbook will provide both a comprehensive survey of this area of law for the novice researcher and fresh food-for-thought for scholars who have been researching this area of law for many years. Contributors include:E.A. Amayuelas, H. Beale, J.M. Bech Serrat, C. Busch, R. Canavan, P. Cartwright, O.O. Cherednychenko, G. Comparato, G. Cordero-Moss, A. Cygan, L. Gillies, M. Graziadei, M.W. Hesselink, G. Howells, C. Mak, V. Mak, H.-W. Micklitz, B. Pozzo, P. Rott, J. Rutgers, J.M. Smits, Y. Svetiev, E.T.T. Tai, C. Twigg-Flesner, W.H. van Boom, J. Watson, F. Zoll




Consumer Protection in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective


Book Description

This comprehensive work covers the consumer protection laws and policies of governing bodies around the world. By presenting materials from edited laws, directives, courts cases, administrative regulations, and commission studies, the author explores the different approaches to the regulation of advertising, sales practices, credit, and product safety and quality. The methods by which consumer protection laws are enforced at the public and private level are also examined. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.




The Evolution of EC Consumer Protection in the Field of Consumer Credit


Book Description

Using consumer credit regulation as a case study, this book investigates how the specific legislation in this field can be explained by the major streams of economic philosophy. Based on an analysis of the evolution of European consumer credit legislation it is shown how the EU legislator's approach towards consumer protection has changed. The author discusses how the role of contemporary consumers is conceptualized by European legislators. It can be shown that EU consumer credit regulations are a perfect example for illustrating the wider changes in EU consumer legislation. The core argument of this book is that for all consumer credit aspects there is a common focal point in that there is tension between two fundamental goals of the European Community, namely economic efficiency (understood as a competitive market society) and consumer protection (understood as a social justice society with its distributive role).




The Making of Consumer Law and Policy in Europe


Book Description

This book analyses the founding years of consumer law and consumer policy in Europe. It combines two dimensions: the making of national consumer law and the making of European consumer law, and how both are intertwined. The chapters on Germany, Italy, the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom serve to explain the economic and the political background which led to different legal and policy approaches in the then old Member States from the 1960s onwards. The chapter on Poland adds a different layer, the one of a former socialist country with its own consumer law and how joining the EU affected consumer law at the national level. The making of European consumer law started in the 1970s rather cautiously, but gradually the European Commission took an ever stronger position in promoting not only European consumer law but also in supporting the building of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the umbrella organisation of the national consumer bodies. The book unites the early protagonists who were involved in the making of consumer law in Europe: Guido Alpa, Ludwig Krämer, Ewa Letowska, Hans-W Micklitz, Klaus Tonner, Iain Ramsay, and Thomas Wilhelmsson, supported by the younger generation Aneta Wiewiórowska Domagalska, Mateusz Grochowski, and Koen Docter, who reconstructs the history of BEUC. Niklas Olsen and Thomas Roethe analyse the construction of this policy field from a historical and sociological perspective. This book offers a unique opportunity to understand a legal and political field, that of consumer law and policy, which plays a fundamental role in our contemporary societies.




Consumer Debt and Social Exclusion in Europe


Book Description

This book analyses the dichotomy between the goal of social inclusion and the effect of social exclusion through over-indebtedness since 2008 in Europe. Filling a vital gap in the current literature on the effects of the financial and economic crisis, this volume puts into context academic discussion with the real-life dimension of over-indebtedness. Reports from six European countries provide socio-economic and legal information on over-indebtedness as well as the regulatory and judicial responses to the problems entailed by over-indebtedness. They form the empirical background for five analyses of different aspects of the inclusion-exclusion dichotomy. It becomes clear that in the context of credit expansion, individual over-indebtedness has turned into a social issue, which the current design of the consumer credit and mortgage system in Europe has helped to produce while disregarding the consequential danger of social exclusion.