Introduction to 'The European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive'

Van Boom, Garde & Akseli, The European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive - Impact, Enforcement Strategies and National Legal Systems (Ashgate 2014), p. 1-18

18 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2014

See all articles by Willem H. Van Boom

Willem H. Van Boom

Business and Law Research Centre (OO&R)

Amandine Garde

Durham University - Law School

Orkun Akseli

Independent

Date Written: September 1, 2014

Abstract

In 2005, the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices was adopted. The UCP Directive has the ambitious aim of addressing unfair commercial practices directly related to distorting consumers’ economic behaviour concerning transactional decisions. In this introductory chapter to the edited volume “The European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive - Impact, Enforcement Strategies and National Legal Systems” (Willem van Boom, Amandine Garde & Orkun Akseli (eds.); Ashgate 2014), we first give a brief overview of the main features of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Secondly, we sketch three themes that seem to have a prominent presence in all discussions of the Directive: the tension between consumer autonomy, empowerment and protection; the problematic nature of the maximum harmonization principle; and finally the decentralized enforcement framework and the challenges this poses at Member State level. Finally, we introduce the contributions to the volume.

Keywords: Unfair commercial practices; unfair advertising; European consumer law

JEL Classification: D18, K19, K20

Suggested Citation

Van Boom, Willem H. and Garde, Amandine and Akseli, Orkun, Introduction to 'The European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive' (September 1, 2014). Van Boom, Garde & Akseli, The European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive - Impact, Enforcement Strategies and National Legal Systems (Ashgate 2014), p. 1-18, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2510837

Willem H. Van Boom (Contact Author)

Business and Law Research Centre (OO&R) ( email )

Nijmegen, 6500 KK
Netherlands

Amandine Garde

Durham University - Law School ( email )

50 North Bailey
Palatine Centre
Durham, County Durham DH1 3ET
United Kingdom

Orkun Akseli

Independent ( email )

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