scholarly journals The Consumer Rights Act 2015 – a bastion of European consumer rights?

Legal Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Giliker
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
European Consumer ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Consumer Contracts ◽  
Unfair Terms ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Informed Consumer ◽  
National Framework ◽  
The Eu

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 seeks to consolidate in one place key consumer rights covering contracts for goods, services and digital content, and the law relating to unfair terms in consumer contracts. These are areas where there has been considerable activity at both a national and an EU level. In particular, the Consumer Sales Directive 99/44/EC, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive 93/13/EEC and the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU have all made significant changes to Member State law, promoting the idea of the ‘informed consumer’, able to assert his or her rights in entering consumer contracts. This paper will examine the extent to which the Act promotes the objectives of these Directives and the implications of the result of the June 2016 referendum that the UK should leave the EU. Does the Consumer Rights Act 2015 represent a valuable consolidation of EU and UK consumer policy, or are EU rights being absorbed into a distinctive national framework of consumer rights?

Brexit and the EU Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre Curtin
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Data Retention ◽  
Free Zone ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

UK involvement in the EU Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ) has been patchy. It never joined the Schengen border-free zone, and when in 2014 it exercised a block exit from all AFSJ measures, it selectively rejoined a substantial number. Even if partially outside, the UK has been a leader inside. Advanced intelligence capabilities meant it provided important support to the functioning of agencies such as Europol and UK laws inspired EU laws, for example, on data retention. The need to preserve some pragmatic forms of cooperation between the UK and the EU is obvious and shared by the UK security establishment. There is a partial institutional precedent . When Denmark rejected participation in Europol in a popular referendum, the Danish government obtained a deal from the EU institutions which allows it to remain associated to Europol as a ‘third country’ (and a Member State). The bespoke Brexit reality may prove even more complex.

Article 50 TEU: The Quest for an Orderly Withdrawal and the Possibility of Alternative Denouements

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-47
Author(s):  
Michael Dougan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This chapter sets out the basic constitutional framework, under EU law, governing the withdrawal of a Member State. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union recognizes the sovereign right of any State to leave the EU and sets out a process for agreeing the terms of an orderly departure. But Brexit also required the EU and the UK to undertake extensive internal preparations, to ensure their own legal systems were ready for the UK’s departure. Moreover, Article 50 itself is drafted in only brief and sketchy terms, leaving many important decisions about Brexit to be worked out in practice. And EU law allows for other final outcomes to the withdrawal process—including a ‘no deal Brexit’; or the UK’s right to ‘revoke and remain’ under the Wightman ruling.

Adjudicating the European Social Market

2018 ◽  
pp. 51-106
Author(s):  
Oliver Gerstenberg
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
Consumer Contracts ◽  
Unfair Terms ◽  
The One ◽  
Social Market ◽  
The Eu

At a first glance, to many observers the EU may appear to be an improbable illustration of the possibility of an extension of legitimacy and democratic justice beyond the state. In contemporary European constitutional debate constitutionalism and social democracy have become antagonists, with the survival of the one seeming to require sacrifice of the other. Authors in the tradition of ordoliberalism have celebrated the Europeanization process because it seemed to ultimately disconnect constitutionalism from democratic practice and to firmly entrench a logic of market evolution that marginalizes politics. Social democrats, by contrast, have come to believe that democracy can only flourish if the solidary politics of the nation retains its sovereignty against cosmopolitan, ‘constitutional’ intrusions from without. Proposals to deepen constitutional integration therefore give rise to the social-democratic objection. This chapter offers a stylized account of both views, which more or less mirror one another. This chapter then also provides an in-depth analysis of the CJEU’s jurisprudence in various domains regarding the efficacy of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (CFREU) in European private law: employment law and unfair terms in consumer contracts in particular. The chapter concludes that, contrary to expectations and concerns about a constitutional asymmetry between economic freedoms and fundamental social rights, the CJEU has in fact in many cases raised the standard of protection beyond the standard envisaged by national legal orders, thereby unblocking development.

14. Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts

Contract Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 444-471
Author(s):  
Ewan McKendrick
Keyword(s):  
Good Faith ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Consumer Contracts ◽  
Unfair Terms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Exhaustive List

This chapter focuses on Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The Act gives to the courts much broader powers to regulate terms in contracts which have been concluded between traders and consumers. Section 2 examines the individual sections of Part 2 of the Act and the leading cases decided under the Regulations which preceded the Act. Particular attention is given to key concepts such as ‘significant imbalance’, ‘good faith’, the exclusion of certain terms from assessment for fairness, the indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms that may be regarded as unfair, and the role of regulators in the enforcement of the legislation. Section 3 draws on work done by Professor Susan Bright in relation to the role of the Unfair Contract Terms Unit in the early days of the enforcement of the legislation.

11. Free movement of goods

2020 ◽  
pp. 294-322
Author(s):  
Sylvia de Mars
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Specific Volume ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Free Movement Of Goods ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This chapter explores the free movement of goods, which lies at the very heart of the internal market. The idea of the free movement of goods was the starting point that the EEC Treaty aimed for, and remains one of the greatest achievements of the EU to date. However, as with everything in EU law, there are a lot of legal rules underpinning a fairly straightforward concept. The Treaty contains two separate sets of provisions that address matters of taxation when it comes to trade in products. The first relates to border taxation, while the second relates to internal taxation. With regard to non-taxation issues, the primary issue is quantitative restrictions: situations where a Member State either blocks a specific volume of products from entering its market, or outlaws/bans a product altogether. The chapter then considers the exceptions to free movement of goods, and assesses how Brexit may impact on the free movement of goods between the UK and the EU.

7. Exemption clauses and unfair contract terms

2019 ◽  
pp. 289-345
Author(s):  
Robert Merkin ◽  
Séverine Saintier
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Ordinary Meaning ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Legislative Regulation ◽  
Consumer Contracts ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Unfair Terms ◽  
Selection Of

The Casebook series provides a comprehensive selection of case law that addresses all aspects of the subject encountered on undergraduate courses. This chapter deals with exemption clauses and unfair contract terms. An exemption clause is a term in a contract or notice that can be either an exclusion clause (excluding liability or remedies) or a limitation clause (limiting liability to a specified sum). The chapter primarily focuses on the requirements that must be satisfied before an exemption clause can be relied upon, the question of construction and the natural and ordinary meaning of the clause, contra proferentem, liability for negligence, limitation clauses, inconsistent terms and fundamental breach. It then examines the legislative regulation of exemption clauses, emphasizing the growing distinction between commercial and consumer contracts in this context. It considers in some depth the enforceability of exemption clauses in a B2B context in accordance with the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and its interpretation in case law. In the B2C context, it discusses control of unfair terms in accordance with Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the case law interpreting the previous legislative regulation of unfair terms.

‘The day after’

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-174
Author(s):  
Phedon Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
Partial Solution ◽  
Double Edge ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
Double Edge Sword ◽  
Copy And Paste ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

The purpose of the two-year rule in Article 50 TEU is to prevent the remaining Member States from delaying the exit of the withdrawing Member State through stalling tactics. This article argues that the two-year period is a double-edge sword. It affords very little time to the withdrawing Member State to adjust its domestic legislation, regulatory system and administrative structure to be able to function effectively on the day after exit from the EU. The UK’s Great Repeal Bill proposes a ‘copy and paste’ approach. However, this approach is only a partial solution to the problem of the ‘exit-induced’ legal lacuna. With the use of two case studies, the article demonstrates that the UK will have to establish new regulatory procedures and redefine EU concepts inserted in national law. The UK will ‘regain control’ but will have to follow EU practice. At some point in the future it will also encounter the dilemma of diverging from EU practice and creating two sets of compliance standards for its companies.

scholarly journals European but not European enough: An explanation for Brexit

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Carl ◽  
James Dennison ◽  
Geoffrey Evans
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Member State ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Weak Sense ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Measures Of Inequality ◽  
The Eu

To date, most accounts of the UK’s vote to leave the EU have focussed on explaining variation across individuals and constituencies within the UK. In this article, we attempt to answer a different question, namely ‘Why was it the UK that voted to leave, rather than any other member state?’. We show that the UK has long been one of the most Eurosceptic countries in the EU, which we argue can be partly explained by Britons’ comparatively weak sense of European identity. We also show that existing explanations of the UK’s vote to leave cannot account for Britons’ long-standing Euroscepticism: the UK scores lower than many other member states on measures of inequality/austerity, the ‘losers of globalisation’ and authoritarian values, and some of these measures are not even correlated with Euroscepticism across member states. In addition, we show that the positive association between national identity and Euroscepticism is stronger in the UK than in most other EU countries. Overall, we conclude that Britons’ weak sense of European identity was a key contributor to the Brexit vote.

Koffman & Macdonald's Law of Contract

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Macdonald ◽  
Ruth Atkins
Keyword(s):  
Undue Influence ◽  
Business Travel ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Consumer Contracts ◽  
Ninth Edition ◽  
Trust Company ◽  
The Common ◽  
Unfair Terms ◽  
Business Exchange

Koffman & Macdonald’s Law of Contract provides a clear, academically rigorous, account of the contract law which is written in a style which makes it highly accessible to university students new to legal study. It works from extensive consideration of the significant cases, to provide students with a firm grounding in the way the common law functions. There are chapters on formation, certainty, consideration, promissory estoppel, intention to create legal relations, express and implied terms, classification of terms, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts, mistake, misrepresentation, duress and undue influence, illegality, unconscionability, privity, performance and breach, frustration, damages, and specific enforcement, as well as companion website chapters on capacity and an outline of the law of restitution. Many new cases and legislative developments are covered in the ninth edition, such as Armchair Answercall Ltd v People in Mind Ltd, Blue v Ashley, Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi, ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis,Globalia Business Travel S.A.U. (formerly TravelPlan S.A.U.) of Spain v Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama, Marks and Spencer plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Company (Jersey) Ltd,MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd v Rock Advertising Ltd, Patel v Mirza, Phones 4U Ltd (In Administration) v EE Ltd. This edition has been updated to include major legislative developments including the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which now encompasses, and makes some changes to, the unfair terms regime, which was previously provided by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, as well as removing, and taking on board, the consumer elements of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

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