European Consumer Law in the Digital Single Market

Abstract

In the context of current pandemic crisis due, social distancing and quarantine measures were imposed by states due to the high risk of infection by going out of the house for buying the goods and services that are required. Naturally, there has been an increase in online acquisitions, use of online entertainment and online tools for professional purposes. This has increased the level of demand alongside the consumption in the online sector which forces the suppliers to become more inventive in order to sell their products and services and make them more accessible, price wise, in better meet the expectations. Unfortunately, this being a highly abrupt shift with no precedence, forcing the traders and providers in the online sector to cut corners in order to keep up and, as a consequence, may affect the consumers. All these being said, although we speak about unprecedented context, the European Union, over the last two decades, has enacted more directives and regulations in order to keep up with this market’s unique and high innovation rate with the goal to ensure the consumer’s protection. This papers analysis the evolution of the European Consumer Law starting with the minimum harmonisation approach and getting to new acts which try to fully harmonise the area for the attainment of a functional internal market, a Single Market which is, nowadays, pressured by the digital revolution and social distancing to change perspective, as customers are interacting with the business in different ways they did once and the digital content is becoming the main product or service to be supplied.

Keywords: consumer protection, European contract law, digital single market, digital content, online sales, consumer remedies, maximum versus minimum harmonization

JEL Classification: K12, K13, K22, K23, K33