The Low-Income Consumer in European Private Law

Abstract

The configuration of consumer law obviously depends on the underlying consumer image. Apparently, there is a strong desire to define ‘the consumer’ in a uniform manner, in order to design doctrinal solutions that suit to pay regard to his or her particularities. This article instead suggests that consumers are different, and that differences do not only stem from experience or mental capacities but that poverty is a criterion that needs to be considered when designing consumer law. It argues that, in contrast to traditional national legal orders, EU private law has made first steps towards special rules for low-income, or poor, consumers that will force national legislators and courts to abstain from overly rigid uniformity in the consumer image that they base their legislation and case law on.

Keywords: Consumer law, consumer image