Instrumentalization of Consumer Law in Central and Eastern Europe for Populist Politics: A Citizen-Consumer Perspective

Abstract

The development of consumer law in CEECs has attracted considerable scholarly attention in the course of these countries’ accession to the EU and in the aftermath of the financial crisis. However, recent years have witnessed a new politicized role of consumer law as some of these countries shifted from neoliberal economic policies towards more inward-looking policies of economic patriotism. Recent years have witnessed a new politicized role of consumer law as some of these countries shifted from neoliberal economic policies towards more inward-looking policies of economic patriotism. A prime example of such an economic governance has developed along the drastic transformation of the constitutional system in Hungary after 2010. The Hungarian government that took office in 2010 has introduced major changes in the economy and its institutional framework resulting in radical restructuring of certain key sectors of the national economy. Even though academic scholarship has analyzed this new governance framework in-depth, there has been no analysis on how transformations in economic governance and declining institutional frameworks effected the legal position and protection of consumers. The paper will fill this gap by analysing the instrumentalization of consumer law by the Hungarian government for political purposes and assess its implications for the economic and political interests of consumers. In order to do that the paper adopts the lens of the citizen-consumer and investigates how consumer law and its institutional framework shape not only individuals’ economic rights and interests but increasingly and most importantly their rights and interests as citizens and ultimately their participation in democratic societies. The paper includes two case studies to illustrate how the destruction of democratic institutions lead to the backsliding of consumer protection and its institutional framework and becomes an instrument of populist politics in the hand of political leaders.

Keywords: consumer law, EU law, unfair commercial law, populist politics, instrumentalization, citizen-consumer, energy, gender, democracy, constitutional law

JEL Classification: K23, K42