Harmonizing Trade Practices in the EU: Sweet Sounds and Sour Notes for European Consumers

Abstract

There is a longstanding debate in the development of consumer policy: whether consumers are better served by regulatory measures that prohibit unwanted marketing practices outright, or by measures that facilitate informed decision making and more efficient consumer markets, letting consumers decide what is best for them. Market-enhancing laws are designed to help consumers make better informed decisions, resulting in more efficient market transactions. A more interventionist approach prohibits contract terms and selling practices that regulators deem unfair and therefore prohibited in all consumer transactions. Although the EU had taken an interventionist approach in other directives, most notably the Directive on Unfair Contract Terms in 1993, the more recent consumer initiative, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, is primarily a market-regulating measure designed to foster informed choices. Whether the Directive is good or bad for businesses and consumers remains to be seen, a subject addressed in depth by Geraint Howells of the United Kingdom, Hans W. Micklitz of Germany, and Thomas Wilhelmsson of Finland in their extensively researched book, European Fair Trading Law: The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. This paper is a review of the book and the Directive.

Keywords: European Union, Commercial Practices Directive, consumer protection, consumer policy