Cross-border consumer conflicts — A French-German experience
The paper informs about and analyses the interim results of a joint initiative of European consumer associations to combat misleading marketing practices originating in Germany and directed towards French consumers. The traditional enforcement mechanisms have so far been unable to provide adequate remedies for cross-border complaints which will occur with more regularity the closer the internal market of the EC comes to completion. The author discusses strategies to take action against the tortfeasor in the country where the wrongful practices originate, rather than, as provided for by the traditional conflict rules, at the place where the injury occurs.ZusammenfassungDer Aufsatz berichtet und analysiert die Zwischenergebnisse einer gemeinsamen Initiative von europäischen Verbraucherorganisationen, die irreführende Wettbewerbspraktiken bekämpfen wollen, die ihren Ausgangspunkt in Deutschland haben und gegen französische Verbraucher gerichtet sind. Die herkömmlichen Rechtsdurchsetzungsmechanismen sind bislang ungeeignet, einen ausreichenden Rechtsschutz bei granzüberschreitenden Beschwerden zu gewährleisten, die mit der Vollendung des Binnenmarktes zunehmend um sich greifen. Der Autor diskutiert Strategien, um gegen den wettbewerbswidrig Handelnden im Verursachungstaat vorzugehen, d.h. dort, wo die Handlungen ihren Ursprung nehmen, und nicht erst dort, wie unter traditionellem internationalem Recht, wo sie ihre schädigenden Auswirkungen haben.
The Protection of Consumers' Interests After the Implementation of the EC Injunctions Directive Into German and English Law
This article briefly outlines the development of EC law on litigation by consumer associations (Part A) and then analyses German and U.K. law, highlighting the recent law reforms instigated by the adoption of Directive 98/27/EC on injunctions for the protection of consumers' interests (Parts B and C). The article argues that the traditionally divergent approaches in Germany and the U.K. are continued and reveals differences both in the details of the relevant regulations and in the general role consumer groups will be able to play in protecting the collective interests of consumers. It is demonstrated that the reluctance of the U.K. approach is neither in line with the intentions of the EC nor justified in the light of the German experience. The article concludes with proposals for the U.K. law reform and argues that a less restrictive, or maybe revolutionary, approach should be followed by the U.K. legislator (Part D).
Consumer Contracts, Employment Contracts and the Rome Convention
THE special rules for determining the law applicable to "certain consumer contracts" and "individual employment contracts" contained, respectively, in Articles 5 and 6 of the Rome (EEC) Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations 1980 have their source in very similar policy considerations. In domestic law such contracts raise considerations of social policy in that one of the parties thereto, respectively the consumer and the employee, is thought to be in a weaker bargaining position, which requires that special protection be provided for that party by rules of law which apply irrespective of any inconsistent rules apparently agreed in the contract itself. Articles 5 and 6 purport to extend this policy into the field of choice of the applicable law. The general rules of the Convention (particularly Article 3 and the wide freedom of choice of law permitted thereby) would be insufficient to achieve the policy of consumer and employee protection, and, accordingly, had to be modified with this end in view. The extent to which choice of law rules should be neutral in their application by making no reference to the values enshrined in potentially applicable rules of substantive law is a matter of