Legal risks in development of EU Consumer protection law

Abstract

The chapter analyses the legal development of the EU consumer protection law from the perspective of legal risks. It focuses on chosen key issues such as the variations in the level of harmonization across different EU consumer protection directives, the effectiveness of consumer protection instruments, the fragmentary approach to the legislative regulation of the EU consumer protection acquis etc. All these important issues affect adversely two main goals accentuated by the preambles of the EU consumer protection directives, namely, the achievement of a high level of consumer protection and the establishment and functioning of the internal market. The development of the EU consumer protection law demonstrates that the EU institutions engaged in the management of legal risks in the area of consumer protection attributed significantly to a development of new risks thereby increasing legal uncertainty in B2C relations.