The Low-Income Consumer in European Private Law

TY - CHAP

T1 - The Low-Income Consumer in European Private Law

AU - Rott, Peter Werner

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - The configuration of consumer law obviously depends on the underlying consumer image. Apparently, there is a strong desire to define ‘the consumer’ in a uniform manner, in order to design doctrinal solutions that suit to pay regard to his or her particularities. This article instead suggests that consumers are different, and that differences do not only stem from experience or mental capacities but that poverty is a criterion that needs to be considered when designing consumer law. It argues that, in contrast to traditional national legal orders, EU private law has made first steps towards special rules for low-income, or poor, consumers that will force national legislators and courts to abstain from overly rigid uniformity in the consumer image that they base their legislation and case law on.

AB - The configuration of consumer law obviously depends on the underlying consumer image. Apparently, there is a strong desire to define ‘the consumer’ in a uniform manner, in order to design doctrinal solutions that suit to pay regard to his or her particularities. This article instead suggests that consumers are different, and that differences do not only stem from experience or mental capacities but that poverty is a criterion that needs to be considered when designing consumer law. It argues that, in contrast to traditional national legal orders, EU private law has made first steps towards special rules for low-income, or poor, consumers that will force national legislators and courts to abstain from overly rigid uniformity in the consumer image that they base their legislation and case law on.

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-04903-8_33

DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-04903-8_33

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-3-319-04902-1

SP - 675

EP - 691

BT - Varieties of European Economic Law and Regulation

PB - Springer

CY - Cham

ER -