Who Would Use the Common European Sales Law? An Empirical Analysis of Cross-Border Consumer Contracts in the European Internal Market

On October 11th 2011 the European Commission proposed a Common European Sales Law (CESL) for the European Union. One of the main aims of this optional instrument is to help businesses to avoid the complexity associated with dealing with multiple mandatory provisions of their customers’ home jurisdictions. In this study I used one of the datasets published by the European Commission to predict the characteristics of businesses that would have benefited from the introduction of the CESL. I also test whether the CESL would be an effective measure for addressing some of the legal barriers that the Commission intends to overcome. My results provide support for the Commission’s claim that the adoption of a Common European Sales Law would benefit some businesses and that it would allow them to improve their operations on the European internal market. However, the CESL may not be effective as a measure for overcoming all of the legal barriers that the Commission intended to address with its proposal.