Consumers routinely enter into long-term contracts with providers of goods and services - from credit cards, mortgages, cell phones, insurance, TV, and internet services to household appliances, theatre and sports events, health clubs, magazine subscriptions, transportation, and more. Across these consumer markets certain design features of contracts are recurrent, and puzzling. Why do sellers design contracts to provide short-term benefits and impose long-term costs? Why are low introductory prices so common? Why are the contracts themselves so complex, with numerous fees and interest rates, tariffs and penalties?
Seduction by Contract explains how consumer contracts emerge from the interaction between market forces and consumer psychology. Consumers are short-sighted and optimistic, so sellers compete to offer short-term benefits, while imposing long-term costs. Consumers are imperfectly rational, so sellers hide the true costs of products and services in complex contracts. Consumers are seduced by contracts that increase perceived benefits, without actually providing more benefits, and decrease perceived costs, without actually reducing the costs that consumers ultimately bear.
Competition does not help this behavioural market failure. It may even exacerbate it. Sellers, operating in a competitive market, have no choice but to align contract design with the psychology of consumers. A high-road seller who offers what she knows to be the best contract will lose business to the low-road seller who offers what the consumer mistakenly believes to be the best contract. Put bluntly, competition forces sellers to exploit the biases and misperceptions of their customers.
Seduction by Contract argues that better legal policy can help consumers and enhance market efficiency. Disclosure mandates provide a promising avenue for regulatory intervention. Simple, aggregate disclosures can help consumers make better choices. Comprehensive disclosures can facilitate the work of intermediaries, enabling them to better advise consumers. Effective disclosure would expose the seductive nature of consumer contracts and, as a result, reduce sellers' incentives to write inefficient contracts.
Developing its explanation through a general framework and detailed case studies of three major consumer markets (credit cards, mortgages, and cell phones), Seduction by Contract is an accessible introduction to the law and economics of consumer contracts, and a powerful critique of current regulatory policy.

This fully revised and updated second edition of Consumer Protection Law introduces the reader to the substantive law of consumer protection in the United Kingdom, the emphasis being on the place of United Kingdom law within an evolving European legal system and also on the need to draw upon comparative experience. The book not only seeks to place consumer protection in its purely black-letter context but also draws upon wider readings to show that consumer protection law is a complex area of law which reflects and shapes the individual citizen's position within the modern economy.

Information requirements have become a key element of consumer policy at the European level and are also gaining increasing importance in all other areas of private law. The law stipulates that information provided should not be misleading and also involves requirements regarding the fairness and objectivity of what has been provided. In addition to controlling the veracity of what is voluntarily offered by traders, the law increasingly requires disclosure of certain information. This volume focuses especially on the question of how these information requirements influence the party autonomy. International contributors explore in various contexts whether the legislative policy regarding the information requirements and their relationship to party autonomy has been properly thought through.

This book presents a detailed analysis of the function of consumer product guarantees and the related legal issues. It applies research findings from the fields of consumer complaining behaviour, marketing science and economics to the legal context. Its central argument is that guarantees could be one way of assisting consumers in resolving product quality disputes. Consumers tend to seek to resolve such disputes informally by complaining, rather than by seeking to go through the courts or structured forms of alternative dispute resolution. Such complaints can be supported by encouraging reliance on consumer product guarantees, particularly where consumers also enjoy strong legal rights. With this in mind, the book develops a legal framework for consumer guarantees, which is based on two key principles: fairness and transparency. There then follows an analysis of English and EC provisions on guarantees, as well as of relevant US law. Particular consideration is given to the relationship between consumer guarantees and statutory rights.

This edited volume covers the challenges currently faced by consumer law in Europe and the United States, ranging from fundamental theoretical questions, such as what goals consumer law should pursue, to practical questions raised by disclosure requirements, the General Data Protection Regulation and technology advancements. With governments around the world enacting powerful new regulations concerning consumers, consumer law has become an important topic in the economic analysis of law. Intended to protect consumers, these regulations typically seek to do so by giving them tools to make better decisions, or by limiting the consequences of their bad decisions. Legal scholars are divided, however, regarding the efficacy and effects of these regulations; some call for certain policies to be abolished, while others support a regulatory expansion.

In recent years, policy makers at various levels have discovered the concept of a circular economy and as a result, are increasingly proposing strategies and legal instruments to support the transition from a linear economy towards a more circular economy.This book explores the concept of a circular economy from both a legal and an interdisciplinary perspective. It provides an in-depth analysis of the initiatives taken at EU level and in several EU Member States (including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and the Scandinavian countries), both with regard to movables and immovables and in the various stages of the value chain.Consumer Protection in a Circular Economy provides the reader with an examination of the most pressing issues in consumer protection today.

The EU has been active in attempting to harmonize the laws of product liability and sale of goods to consumers, with the aim of promoting fair competition, developing the internal market, and protecting consumers. But how do the resulting laws relate to existing national laws of liability and compensation? Is the resulting harmonization genuine or merely formal? Has implementation of the EC directives changed the law, but left claimants and defendants as differently treated as ever in different Member States? This comparative study considers the French and English laws governing all those who may be liable for products: their producers, their suppliers, their users and their regulators. To do so, it examines in each system the private law of tort and contract and aspects of the civil process which are important in determining liability; the administrative law concerning failures to regulate or control product safety; and the liability for products of suppliers of public services, such as water or healthcare. It considers how the substantive criminal offences affecting product safety, whether particular to products or under more general law, relate to civil liability or to compensation. The emerging picture reveals two complex and significantly different patterns of liability for products in the English and French systems, cutting across the traditional boundaries of private law, public law and criminal law. Implementation of the Product Liability Directive and Consumer Guarantees Directive required the insertion into these patterns of new elements, disharmonious with existing wider legal strategies and techniques. This study considers various problems of these directives' implementation in the French and English systems, the main issues of their proper interpretation, and the relationship of the new laws which they create with existing bases of liability. It explains the different significances given to 'fault,' 'negligence' and 'defect' (whether of safety or of contractual conformity); the relationship between judicial institutions and legal procedures in the determination of substantive legal issues; and the different relationships in the two laws studied between public and private, civil and criminal law. It concludes by offering wider comments on legal harmonisation based on the French and English experience in relation to these two directives.

The last couple of years have witnessed an unprecedented battle within Europe between values and pragmatism, and between states' interests and individuals' rights. This book examines humanitarian considerations and immigration control from two perspectives; one broader and more philosophical, the other more practical. The impetus to show compassion for certain categories of persons with vulnerabilities can depend on religious, philosophical and political thought. Manifestation of this compassion can vary from the notion of a charitable act to aid 'the wretched' in their home country, to humanitarian assistance for the 'distant needy' in foreign lands and, finally, to immigration policies deciding who to admit or expel from the country. The domestic practice of humanitarian protection has increasingly drawn in transnational law through the expansion of the EU acquis on asylum, and the interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Active Role of Courts in Consumer Litigation traces the emergence of a specific EU Law doctrine governing the role of the national courts in proceedings involving consumers that whilst only established more recently, has already become an important benchmark for effective consumer protection.According to the 'active consumer court' doctrine, developed in the case-law of the CJEU, national courts are required to raise, of their own motion, mandatory rules of EU consumer contract law, notably those protecting consumers from the use of unfair terms. This results in the strengthening of procedural consumer protection standards in ordinary proceedings but also in payment order proceedings, consumer insolvency proceedings or repossession proceedings directed against the primary family residence of the mortgage debtor.The considerations of contractual imbalance will now have to be taken into account in court proceedings leading, where necessary, to the reform of national procedural safeguards to protect the weaker contractual party.

This book is a guide to the purposes, strengths, and weaknesses of disclosures as consumer protections in financial transactions such as loans, deposits, and consumer leases. It focuses on the federal Truth in Lending Act but also covers a variety of other federal disclosure statutes designed to protect consumers in their financial relationships. It comes at a time when federal financial consumer protection policy in the financial area is again a matter of intense public scrutiny and debate. Because of the importance of public policy issues surrounding use of disclosures as consumer protections, the intended audience includes anyone interested in these issues, not simply specialists who spend their time focused on them. For this reason, the work avoids academic jargon and the mathematics that is the modern language of economics. It also examines the psychological, sociological, historical, and especially legal traditions that go into fully understanding what has led to the demand for better disclosures for consumers and to what they have become today. Despite a need to outline and review prior difficulties with disclosure laws, the book remains optimistic that disclosures will continue to be an important means of consumer protection and that future reforms can improve their effectiveness and lower their regulatory costs and burden.

An authoritative and comprehensive legal text on all aspects of age restricted goods and services in England and Wales. Now in its third edition, the book covers all of the latest changes to age restrictions, including offensive weapons, cosmetic fillers and unmanned drones. It also has a new chapter exploring the emerging standards and laws for online safety and age assurance. The book cross references all relevant case law, official guidance and legislation with a guide as to relevant factors for law enforcement officers to consider. It is an essential text for anyone engaged in under age sales enforcement or corporate compliance departments focussed on avoiding under age sales. The book is set out by reference to the broad categories of age restriction and separate chapters on establishing a 'due diligence' defence and the powers and duties of law enforcement officers. Age Restricted Sales is the only comprehensive and authoritative legal text on the subject and will be an essential book for trading standards officers, licensing officers, police licensing officers, solicitors, barristers, corporate compliance departments, community safety officers.

This book brings together a series of contributions by leading scholars and practitioners to examine the main features of smart contracts, as well as the response of key stakeholders in technology, business, government and the law. It explores how this new technology interfaces with the goals and content of contract law, introducing and evaluating several mechanisms to improve the 'observability' and reduce the costs of verifying contractual obligations and performance. It also outlines various 'design patterns' that ensure that end users are protected from themselves, prevent cognitive accidents, and translate expectations and values into more user-oriented agreements. Furthermore, the chapters map the new risks associated with smart contracts, particularly for consumers, and consider how they might be alleviated. The book also discusses the challenge of integrating data protection and privacy concerns into the design of these agreements and the broad range of legal knowledge and skills required. The case for using smart contracts goes beyond 'contracts' narrowly defined, and they are increasingly used to disrupt traditional models of business organisation. The book discusses so-called decentralised autonomous organisations and decentralised finance as illustrations of this trend. This book is designed for those interested in looking to deepen their understanding of this game-changing new legal technology.

The book is a novelty. For the first time the fundamentals of the performance activities of the German Society for Musical Performing Rights and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) will be comprehensively presented, expertly explained and scientifically fathomed. In addition to the historical and legal basics, this especially concerns the presentation and elucidation of GEMA's "internal rules": The statutes, authorisation agreement and the plan of distribution. An overview concerning the practice of licensing will also be provided. Such a presentation has long since been a sought-after reference factor of practice and science. The reference work should provide those individuals entitled as well as users, supervisory authorities and courts - but also scholars - reliable information concerning the performance activity, and thus contribute to transparency.

Over the last decade, the EU has become a major actor in the field of risk regulation in crucial areas such as environmental and consumer protection. This book analyzes the reasons which have prompted this development, and discusses the ways in which the EU's structures and modes of market governance have changed and attempted to respond to such challenges.

Consumer out-of-court redress in the European Union is experiencing a significant transformation; indeed the current changes are the most important that have occurred in the history of the EU. This is due to the recent implementation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive 2013/11/EU and the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Regulation (EU) 2013/524. The Directive ensures the availability of quality ADR schemes and sets information obligations on businesses, and the Regulation enables the resolution of consumer disputes through a pan European ODR platform. The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution examines the impact of the new EU law in the field of consumer redress. Part I of the volume examines the new European legal framework and the main methods of consumer redress, including mediation, arbitration, and ombudsman schemes. Part II analyses the implementation of the ADR Directive in nine Member States with very different legal cultures in consumer redress, namely: Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as the distinct approach taken in the US. Part III evaluates new trends in consumer ADR (CDR) by identifying best practices and looking at future trends in the field. In particular, it offers a vision of the future of CDR which is more than a mere dispute resolution tool, it poses a model on dispute system design for CDR, it examines the challenges of cross-border disputes, it proposes a strategy to promote mediation, and it identifies good practices of CDR and collective redress. The book concludes by calling for the mandatory participation of traders in CDR.

Providing public access to educational material from schools and universities, research and teaching is viewed politically as a means of survival for industrialized countries that have few natural resources, like Germany. The author examined the conditions that provide for success in research and teaching by means of a legal comparison of the copyright laws in Germany and Sweden.

New rules on distance contracts provided for the Consumer Rights Directive of 25 October 2011 do not apply to package holidays or contracts falling within the scope of the Timeshare Directive. Moreover, contracts for passenger transport services and contracts for the provision of accommodation, car rental, catering or leisure services if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance are not covered by some of these rules. Yet measures aimed at protecting the consumer when a contract is concluded via the phone, the Internet, by mail or other means of distance communication play a role in tourism. This book helps readers to navigate through uncertainties in travel contracts regarding information requirements, the right of withdrawal or providing alternative services. Findings reveal that consumer acquis is inadequately adapted to the features of the tourism industry when an optional instrument based on the Draft Common Frame of Reference might be used in the future.

In this volume, the basic principles of the administrative functions carried out by the Society for Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) are presented comprehensively and academically explained. This work is primarily focused on presenting and explaining the GEMAa (TM)s a oeinternal regulationsa: the statutes, the deed of assignment, and the distribution plan. Additionally, an overview is presented on the day to day practice of licensing the rights. The main focus of this presentation is the commentary section. The commentary presents in detail and academically considers the statutes as the basis of the organization, the deed of assignment as the foundation of the assignment of rights, and the distribution plan. The new edition brings this work up to date. The copyright law reform (a oeZweite Korba ) is taken into consideration as well as the latest judicature and the newest amendments to the GEMA's deed of assignment and distribution plan.

This collection includes essays by eleven leading public health experts, economists, physicians, political scientists, and lawyers, whose activities encompass Congressional testimonies, Surgeon General's reports on youth smoking, and clinical trials for drugs for smoking cessation. They analyze specific strategies that have been used to influence tobacco use, including taxation, regulation of advertising and promotion, regulation of indoor smoking, control of youth access to cigarettes and other tobacco products, litigation, and subsidies of smoking cessation, and set them against the latest scientific findings about tobacco and the changing cultural and political setting against which policy decisions are being made.

The 50-year anniversary of the German collecting society for performing artists, record producers and organizers, the "German Collecting Society for Performance Rights (GVL)," was marked by a symposium sponsored by the Institute for the Legal Protection of Industrial Property and Copyright, Humboldt-University of Berlin, in the fall of 2009. The now published and revised contributions to the symposium address a variety of topics including a historical review of the GVL, a critical analysis of German collecting societies' situation in light of European competition as well as the expectations of performance artists, record producers and users with regard to the GVL.

This conference volume on the German-Japanese colloquium a oeTransformations or Erosion of Private Autonomy?a carries the debate on the subject into the area of contract law that is central to economic life.

Coalitions of consumer groups, NGOs, and trade unions have traditionally been considered politically weak compared to well-organized and resourceful financial sector groups which dominate or "capture" financial regulatory decisions. However, following the 2008 financial crisis, civil society groups have been seen to exert much more influence, with politicians successfully implementing financial reform in spite of industry opposition. Drawing on literature from social movement research and regulatory politics, this book shows how diffuse interests were represented in financial regulatory overhauls in both the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). Four cases of reform in the post-crisis regulatory context are analyzed: the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the US; the introduction of new consumer protection regulations through EU directives; the failure of attempts to introduce a financial transaction tax in the US; and the agreement of 11 EU member states to introduce such a tax. It shows how building coalitions with important elite allies outside and inside government helped traditionally weak interest groups transcend a lack of material resources to influence and shape regulatory policy. By engaging with a less well-known side of the debate, it explains how business power was curbed and diverse interests translated into financial regulatory policy.

This conference volume contains lectures, texts and reports on the conference a oeResearch and teaching in the information age - between freedom of access and the incentive to privatisea of the Institute for Media Law and Communication Law and the Modern History Department of the University of Cologne on 21 April 2006 in Cologne.

Inspired by the Consumer Credit Act 2006, this detailed work offers practical guidance on the legislation. The scope and impact of the regulation is undergoing fundamental change; for example, financial limits on regulation are being partially removed, the OFT are given the power to fine licensees, an Ombudsman scheme is being introduced and agreements can be reopened where the relationship arising is held to be unfair. This book addresses topics of practical concern and examines the areas most relevant to practitioners drafting, securitising or seeking to defend claims under credit or hire agreements. In particular, the book focuses on the outstanding problems and issues arising from the application of the Consumer Credit Act. In-depth commentary is provided by an expert author team who have appeared in many recent cases where enforceability of rights under credit and hire agreements has been in issue.