The proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to place more responsibility on online platform operators to control information published by users on their websites. That is a welcome development in the light of scandals concerning fake news and the surreptitious influencing of voters through...

In European consumer law, the standard of consumer protection in positive harmonisation through Directives is much more consumer-friendly than in negative harmonisation through free movements law, where trade interests come first. With knock-on effects in national laws, this double-headed...

Article 67 of the proposed Common European Sales Law (CESL) stipulates that usage and practices are binding on traders. It follows that, if such customs can be referred to in the interpretation of contracts, they create flexibility in the understanding of contractual agreements and therefore...

Examples of financial mistakes made by consumers lend support to the view that systematic mistakes of consumers exist in the EU credit market and that service providers respond strategically to these by redesigning their products. This paper seeks to determine how existing regulation can be...

In this article we argue that a rights oriented approach alone cannot achieve effective consumer empowerment. A critical point that is often overlooked in the Commission’s striving to create and to fine-tune consumer rights, is that these rights do not necessarily coincide with consumer needs....

The involvement of EU law in business-to-consumer (B2C) private law relationships is bounded. Regulation originates partly at EU level and partly in national law, leading to fragmentation and legal uncertainty. To counter this problem, this chapter aims to give a new perspective on lawmaking in...

This paper discusses the position of private actors as norm-setters in European private law. It discusses what position self-regulation has as a source of law beside public regulation. Although self-regulation is an important source of norms in practice, since it is not legally binding...

The EU has made it one of its goals to promote social inclusion (Strategy 2020). This article aims to identify how, within a changing context of lawmaking and governance, European private law can contribute to reaching that goal. Conventional knowledge of the economic regulation of Western...

In EU free movements regulation, the average consumer is regarded as someone who is ‘reasonably circumspect' and able to look after his own interests. National legislation aiming at offering a higher degree of protection is often struck down, in this light, as creating unjustified barriers to...