The Regulation of Child Consumption in European Law: Rights, Market and New Perspectives

Abstract

This article aims to examine the condition of children in contemporary society and concerns their specific position of consumers. In this perspective, the analysis of the relations between minors and market joins juridical, sociological and philosophical issues and furthermore it is related also to the transformations of childhood in modern society (through the shift, for children, from a dimension of 'incapable' persons to another that portrays them as autonomous and competent beings). The fil rouge of this research consists in examining the figure of the child consumer through an analysis of the state of the art of the juridical forms of protection, but also in a de iure condendo approach, considering the new rights and needs of children and the different models of regulations of their status and specific condition. In the background, there is the doctrinal debate concerning the position of minors in private law, their capacity to act beyond their legal incapacity (for example for the necessaries acts) and the problem to evaluate the relevance of their consent (and their – if any – contractual liability) also in order to protect third parties who have contractual relationships with them.

Keywords: minors, consumer law, advertising, product safety, unfair commercial practices, European and comparative law, legal harmonization, contractual capacity