Consumer law enforcement is high on the European legislator's agenda. The German consumer law enforcement landscape is not unaffected by these European developments. Traditionally, law enforcement in Germany has primarily been carried out by way of civil litigation relying on active consumer...

Key PointsFollowing (price-increasing) competition law infringements, consumer harm is two-fold.Consumers are negatively impacted by (i) the overcharge (they pay more for the goods actually purchased during the infringement period) and (ii) a ‘lost consumption effect’ (they buy less because...

From an economic perspective tort law is to serve two important functions: deterrence of wrongdoers and victim compensation. We can easily construct examples of torts leading to small and widespread harm for which it is questionable whether a rational victim will initiate an individual lawsuit....

In the law and economics literature liability is generally regarded as an instrument which provides potential tortfeasors with incentives for optimal care taking. The question, however, arises whether liability can still provide those incentives when risks are unknown. That is the central...

From an economic point of view, there has to be a rationale for government intervention in markets in the form of consumer protection laws. This rationale results from economic inefficiencies in markets: particularly the occurrence of market failures. If markets do not work properly, inefficient...