The protection offered by European Union consumer law as an area of dialogue between the Court of Justice of the European Union and national courts

Autori

  • Constanța Mătușescu "Valahia" University of Targoviste, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, Romania

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55516/ijlso.v3i1.138

Cuvinte cheie:

consumer, consumer protection, judicial dialogue, vulnerability, ex officio control

Rezumat

Consumer protection is not the only area of EU law in which significant progress has been made both through the adoption of formal legal instruments and through the interpretation of existing rules by the Court of Justice of the European Union, mostly on the initiative of national courts through the preliminary reference procedure provided for in Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. However, EU consumer law is unique in that the Court of Justice, with the assistance of national judges, has developed what can be described as a surprising interpretation of the secondary legislation in this area, going beyond the substantive aspects which it seeks to regulate and touching on important procedural aspects relating to the procedural position of consumers seeking to enforce their rights under European law and the remedies which can be used within the national legal systems of the Member States to promote more effective enforcement of consumer protection law..

The article begins by highlighting the approach taken by the Court of Justice in this decision and the implications of this approach, and then goes on to highlight two of the main mechanisms used in this approach - the progressive development of a broad concept of consumer in its procedural dimension and the principle of ex officio action by the national judge in consumer cases. The case-law relating to these mechanisms is presented in terms of its dynamics, including the most recent developments and a reading grid is proposed for each of them, which goes beyond the issue of consumer protection in order to identify the implications from an institutional perspective of the relationship between the European Union and the Member States. The final part of the paper brings the two sets of jurisprudence together in order to draw some conclusions on the growing role of European jurisprudence.

Referințe

Arnull, Anthony, Preliminary Rulings and Judicial Politics, in Amtenbrink, Fabian, Davies, Gareth, Kochenov, Dimitry, Lindeboom, Justin (eds), The Internal Market and the Future of European Integration: Essays in Honour of Laurence W. Gormley, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019, pp. 439-454;

Beka, Anthi, The Active Role of Courts in Consumer Litigation. Applying EU Law of the National Courts’ Own Motion, Intersentia Publishing House, 2018; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780687674;

Bercea, Lucian, Protecţia consumatorilor ca valoare constituţională [Consumer protection as a constitutional value], Pandectele române no. 12/2011, pp. 34-51;

Bercea, Lucian, Standardul „consumatorului mediu” şi consimțământul pentru prelucrarea datelor cu caracter personal [The "average consumer" standard and consent for the processing of personal data], Revista Română de Drept Privat, no. 1/2018, pp. 26-51;

Briciu, Traian Cornel, Implicaţiile jurisprudenţei CJUE asupra practicii naţionale în privinţa contestaţiilor la executare referitoare la contractele încheiate cu consumatorii [Implications of CJEU jurisprudence on national practice regarding to objections to the enforcement regarding contracts concluded with consumers], 31 May 2021, available online at https://www.universuljuridic.ro/implicatiile-jurisprudentei-cjue-asupra-practicii-nationale-in-privinta-contestatiilor-la-executare-referitoare-la-contractele-incheiate-cu-consumatorii/#r1, accessed on 15.09.2023;

Buz, Adrian Daniel, Marcarea dreptului român prin interacţiunea cu dreptul Uniunii Europene în domeniul protecţiei consumatorului. Perspective temporale şi actualitatea temei [Marking Romanian law through interaction with EU law in the field of consumer protection. Temporal perspectives and actuality of the theme], Revista Dreptul, no. 4/2022, pp. 67-77;

European University Institute, ACTIONES Handbook on the Techniques of Judicial Interactions in the Application of the EU Charter. Module 4- Consumer Protection, 2016, available online at https://cjc.eui.eu/projects/actiones/actiones-platform/, accessed on 15.09.2023;

Grochowski, Mateusz, Taborowski, Maciej, Effectiveness and EU consumer law: the blurriness in judicial dialogue, in Federica Casarosa, Madalina Moraru (eds.), The Practice of Judicial Interaction in the Field of Fundamental Rights, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022, pp. 235–256; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800371224.00025;

Howells, Geraint, Twigg-Flesne, Christian, Wilhelmsson, Thomas, Rethinking EU Consumer Law, Routledge, London and New York, 2018;

Ionescu, Steluța, Principiile procedurii judiciare. In reglementarea actuală și în Noile Coduri de procedură [Principles of judicial procedure. In the current legislation and in the New Codes of Procedure], Universul Juridic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2010;

Jerez Delgado, Carmen, Directive 93/13 on unfair terms: a trojan horse in spanish procedural law?, în European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Cayetana Santaolalla Montoya (dir.), Consumer protection in the European Union: challenges and opportunities, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxemburg, 2023, pp. 76-91; DOI: https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2838/457132;

Mătușescu, Constanta, Ionescu, Steluta, Effective Judicial Protection. Landmarks of Recent Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in Tomiță Ciulei, Gabriel Gorghiu (eds.), Communicative Action & Transdisciplinarity in the Ethical Society, LUMEN Proceedings, Iasi, 2018, pp. 155-169;

Mătușescu, Constanta, Jurisdictional subsidiarity at the European Union level and its implications in the domestic legal framework, in Curierul Judiciar, supplement/2018 (Proceedings of the International Conference "Current Problems of the Political-Legal Space of the EU", 4th edition, Bucharest, 25 October 2018), pp. 57-67;

Mătușescu, Constanta, Protecția (judiciară) a statului de drept în Uniunea Europeană, la originea unei reconfigurări a granițelor dintre competențele Uniunii Europene și competențele statelor membre. Câteva reflecții [(Judicial) protection of the rule of law in the European Union, at the origin of a reconfiguration of the boundaries between the competences of the European Union and the competences of the Member States. Some reflections], in Predescu, Ovidiu, Fuerea, Augustin, Duțu-Buzura, Andrei (coord.), Actualitatea și perspectivele interdependențelor dreptului Uniunii Europene cu dreptul intern al statelor membre [Current and Future Prospects on the Interdependencies between European Union Law and the National Law of the Member States], Universul Juridic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2022, pp. 166-178;

Mătușescu, Constanta, The judicial dialogue from the perspective of recent case law on the duty of national courts to refer preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Valahia University Law Study, Supplement/2020, pp. 34-57;

Niță, Manuela, Dreptul afacerilor. Principii. Reguli. Instituții [Business law. Principles. Rules. Institutions], Sitech Publishing House, Craiova, 2023;

Reich, Norbert, General Principles of EU Civil Law, Intersentia, 2013 (online, 2017), pp. 37-58; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780685304.004;

Tulibacka, Magdalena, Proceduralisation of EU Consumer Law and its Impact on European Consumers, Review of European Administrative Law (REALaw), Volume 8 (1), 2015, pp. 51-74, DOI: 10.7590/187479815X14313382198296;

Twigg-Flesne,r Christian, Good-Bye Harmonisation by Directives, Hello Cross-Border only Regulation? – A way forward for EU Consumer Contract Law, European Review of Contract Law, Volume 7(2), 2011, pp. 235-256, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ercl.2011.235;

Ungureanu, Carmen Tamara, Cine este, de fapt, consumatorul european? [Who is the European consumer, really?] Revista de Științe Juridice, no. 1/2021, pp. 9-20;

Vâlcu, Elise Nicoleta, Brief Considerations on the “Behaviour” of Professional Traders and Consumers in the Context of the Shift from Brick-And-Mortar to E-commerce. Union and Transposition Regulations, International Investment Law Journal”, Volume 3(1), 2023, pp. 90-98; http://investmentlaw.adjuris.ro/anul3nr1.html;

Weatherill, Stephen, Consumer Policy, in Craig, Paul, de Búrca, Gráinne (eds.), The Evolution of EU Law (3rd edn), Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. 874–901; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192846556.003.0028.

Descărcări

Publicat

2023-12-02

Cum cităm

Mătușescu , C. . (2023). The protection offered by European Union consumer law as an area of dialogue between the Court of Justice of the European Union and national courts. International Journal of Legal and Social Order, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.55516/ijlso.v3i1.138