The public debate about smart contracts, meant as self-help remedies grounded on distributed ledger technology, is filled with alarms and high expectations. They have been praised by the tech community as infallible software able to carry out the whole contractual cycle, from formation to...

Consumers and users are daily involved in commercial practices and transactions that can end up not pacifically. We buy items and services, we travel, we use public services and vehicles and we enter into contracts with banks, insurance and financial services companies. The disputes arising from...

Many believe that consumer-sourced reputational information about products would increasingly replace top-down regulation. Instead of protecting consumers through coercive laws, reputational information gleaned from the wisdom of the crowd would guide consumer decision making. There is now a...

Unfair terms law as an area of consumer contract law becomes more and more important and, within the European context, new forms of enforcement are discussed in order to augment the level of effectiveness of consumer protection. Personalization of the law could have a significant impact on the...

Guaranties and suretyships reduce the risk of default and today remain essential arrangements in many commercial and consumer transactions. A guarantor or surety promises to pay for the debt of a third party and may become primarily liable on that debt. Despite the significance of such a promise...

Commentators and lawmakers have called attention to the rising frequency of contractual arbitration as a non-negotiable condition of many relationships. Indeed, it is a rare individual who is not subject to at least one pre-dispute, binding arbitration agreement. This Article studies common...

This article examines the benefits of the class action for New Zealand consumers. It analyses the current operation of the New Zealand class action and recommends significant reform to expand the use of the class action and to give clear specific guidelines on its operation. The author defines a...

The Brussels Ia Regulation leaves businesses no feasible option for a choice of jurisdiction in cross-border B2C contracts. The recent judgment by the European Court of Justice in the Ryanair case confirms that the Court will not tolerate any attempts to circumvent the regulatory aim of...

The key argument of this contribution is that there is a case for harmonisation of the rules for online rating and review systems at the European level in order to create a level playing field for the collaborative economy. Following the model of the ‘new approach’ which has been efficient...

The growth of e-commerce in any jurisdiction cannot be divorced from the confidence of consumers in the system. Lack of confidence in the system can be directly related to ambiguity surrounding consumer rights, where there is a perceived lacuna in the law. To boost confidence in the system,...