Europäischer Verbraucherschutz – Ausdruck grenzenloser Regulierungswut oder sinnvoller Schutz für Käufer? Erkenntnisse aus einem Laborexperiment.

The paper uses the results of a lemons market experiment to derive economic policy implications regarding the EU regulation on consumer protection. The two lemons market designs tested in the experiment differed with respect to the risk of purchasing bad quality which the uninformed consumers had to bear. In the high-risk market, but not in the low-risk market, consumers have suffered expected losses. This empirical result may justify a paternalistic regulation that makes warranties mandatory.