JOURNAL OF CONSUMER POLICY最新文献

This paper considers whether a duty to provide consumers with disabilities with pre-contractual information in an accessible format, or in an otherwise personalised format, can be read into EU consumer protection law. Such a duty could be regarded as a particular form of reasonable accommodation. The paper explores this issue in the context of three key consumer protection instruments: the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Consumer Credit Directive, and the Consumer Rights Directive. The paper argues that the Directives should be interpreted in light of the EU’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which addresses, inter alia, the accessibility of information. Whilst consumer protection is an area of shared competence between the EU and its Member States, the three Directives examined in the paper largely provide for “full harmonisation,” thereby limiting the scope Member States have for taking action in these fields. In light of this, the paper argues that the EU has, to a large degree, taken on responsibility for complying with the CRPD in these fields, and that the Directives should be interpreted in light of those obligations. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights can further bolster a human rights compatible interpretation of EU consumer protection directives. The paper also considers the extent to which the Directives allow Member States some residual competences to set requirements concerning pre-contractual information for persons with disabilities. To the extent that such competences exist, the paper argues that CRPD-compatible minimum requirements for pre-contractual information provided to consumers with disabilities should be read into the Directives by the European Court of Justice. Establishing CRPD-compatible minimum requirements in this field would reduce the need for individual Member States to take action to comply with the CRPD, and therefore reduce the risk of divergent national standards which could undermine the internal market goals of the relevant Directives. The paper concludes that a duty to provide a de facto reasonable accommodation, in terms of accessible and additional information, can be read into the Consumer Credit Directive and the Consumer Rights Directive. A more limited duty, concerning only the provision of additional information for persons with disabilities, can be read into the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. It is unclear whether case law of the Court of Justice can be interpreted as requiring the provision of accessible information under this last Directive.

This article aims to analyse whether the MERCOSUR rules that comprise Private International Consumer Law, in terms of definition, international jurisdiction, and applicable law, were influenced by existing regulations in the European Union, especially the Rome Convention of 1980 and the Brussels Convention of 1968, later transformed into European Union regulations. To do so, the article examines the Law of MERCOSUR, so that, through descriptive and comparative normative methods, it is possible to highlight to what extent the law produced in MERCOSUR gathers the solutions of European norms and with respect to what aspects it has departed from them, perhaps offering greater protection to cross–border consumers.

In the digital economy, consumer vulnerability is not simply a vantage point from which to assess some consumers' lack of ability to activate their awareness of persuasion. Instead, digital vulnerability describes a universal state of defencelessness and susceptibility to (the exploitation of) power imbalances that are the result of the increasing automation of commerce, datafied consumer-seller relations, and the very architecture of digital marketplaces. Digital vulnerability, we argue, is architectural, relational, and data-driven. Based on our concept of digital vulnerability, we demonstrate how and why using digital technology to render consumers vulnerable is the epitome of an unfair digital commercial practice.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China in April 2021 to guarantee grain security, conserve resources, and protect the environment. We pursue three research questions: Why has China implemented a law with sanctions to reduce food waste, and why now? Why does the law target the catering industry? To answer these questions, we collected primary data through semi-structured interviews with government officials, as well as secondary data through recorded interviews available online with officials of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) and food waste activists, as well as NPCSC conference reports. We find a legal approach with sanctions was necessary since cultural aspects, specifically conventional Chinese dining habits and pop culture, are difficult to regulate through instruments without sanctions. In addition, we find the Chinese law focuses on the catering industry for a few reasons: (1) More waste is generated by the catering industry than households, (2) waste from the catering industry is easier to monitor than household waste, and (3) this was a response to citizen requests collected during the Anti-food Waste Law public consultation process.

Chilean consumer law and policy has a short but enthralling history. As compared with other jurisdictions such as EU countries, its bedrock is still in formation, particularly pertaining to its envisaged role in the regulatory spectrum applicable to consumer markets. However, this circumstance has not been a serious obstacle to several reforms carried out in recent years aimed at broadening its scope of action, including rethinking a proposal regarding the policy goals to be addressed by the national consumer agency, SERNAC. In that context, this article presents a brief account of the main features of Chilean consumer law, considering the current socioeconomic development level of the country, the main pieces of legislation concerning consumer protection in the Chilean legal framework-notably the Chilean Consumer Protection Act-as well as key elements of the public policy approach in this matter. A few examples of topics such as product liability and sale and purchase of consumer goods are also analysed in order to allow a comparison of the Chilean experience in consumer protection with other jurisdictions.