JUDICIAL PROTECTION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS – THE (MOST) APPROPRIATE WAY?

Abstract

At EU level, discussions on the future direction of development of consumer protection policy revolve around the open question of efficiency of mechanisms for protection and realisation of consumer rights in national legal systems of EU Member States. Measures and activities of the EU legislator resulted in ‘competing’ mechanisms, which objectively creates a need for examination of the extent to which
their functions overlap as well as if it is possible to detect the (most) appropriate way for protection of consumer rights. The analysis in the paper starts from the presumption that the consumer protection policy was developed within the measures aimed at integration of the Single Market and harmonization of consumer laws, on the one side and the recognized need of consumer protection as a social and political goal, on the other side. In this sense, the main point discussed in the paper is whether the recent development in the field of consumer protection, including the recent judgments of the European court could be interpreted as a reflection of the notion that the efficient judicial protection of (individual) consumer rights is (yet) again a priority at EU
level. In the first part of the paper the development and application of mechanisms which represent a certain kind of alternative to the judicial consumer protection will be presented. In the second part of the paper, we will consider if the all the more present focus on judicial protection of consumer rights at EU level is an indication of a ‘successful experiment which resulted in unexpected outcome’. The required
argumentation will be provided through monitoring of the trend of ‘proceduralization’ or ‘europeanisation’ of the national consumer law in the jurisprudence of the European court. The effect of Article 47 EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and its requirement of efficient protection of procedural rights of individuals before national courts of EU Member States will be analysed in detail. At the same time, the recent activities of the European Commission directed at court proceedings before national courts and removal of barriers in their work in the field of consumer protection will be taken into account.