There is a wide-spread consensus that UTPs occur throughout the food supply chain. Unfair trading practices (UTPs) can be defined as practices which grossly deviate from good commercial conduct, are contrary to good faith and fair dealing and are unilaterally imposed by one trading partner on its counterparty. Some Member States, such as France, Belgium and the UK, have already adopted legislation specifically prohibiting such practices (in the food and/or non-food supply chain). In addition, various self-regulatory initiatives exist. In April 2019, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain. A Commission Proposal of April 2018 (COM(2018) 173 final) was substantially amended. To improve farmers' and small and medium sized businesses' position in the food supply chain, the Directive bans certain unfair trading practices including late payments for perishable food products; last minute order cancellations; unilateral changes to contracts; refusal to enter into a written contract; returning unsold or wasted products; payment for buyer's marketing. Each Member State has to designate a competent authority to enforce these rules and these authorities must have the power to both launch investigations and fine operators who break the rules. The Member States now have two years to implement the Directive.

Digital Content & Distance Sales analyses three legal instruments proposed by the European Commission in the context of its Digital Single Market Strategy, which has recently become one of its priorities. The proposed instruments are: (1) a directive for the supply of digital content; (2) a directive for the online and other distance sales of goods; and (3) a regulation on cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market. This book takes a combined approach of setting out the broader legislative and political context of the proposed legal instruments, giving the reader a general overview of the background and subsequent impact of the proposals, and indepth analyses of specific aspects, advantages and challenges. Through this approach, the authors offer valuable insight into key areas of legal development.This book will be useful to academics and practitioners working in contract law, particularly European contract law.

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 objective of this casebook, like others in the Ius Commune Series, is to help uncover common roots, notwithstanding differences in approach, of the European legal systems, with a view to strengthening the common legal heritage of Europe. The casebook covers the big legal families in the EU and contains judgments from the supreme courts and other courts of the Member States. In view of the importance of EC legislation (eg harmonisation directives and regulations) in this field, the consumer law casebook contains much material derived from Community law, such as extracts from directives (eg on unfair contract terms, distance selling, doorstep selling, product liability, unfair commercial pratices etc) and judgments of the ECJ and national court decisions. Furthermore, attention is paid to the way in which, when interpreting EC directives in the consumer field, the ECJ refers to concepts common to the legal systems of the Member States and how the courts of the Member States incorporate the concepts found in the directives (as interpreted by the ECJ) in their legal systems. The casebook also compares harmonised and pre-harmonised law, especially in the case law of the Member States. The casebook concentrates on private law in the field of consumer protection but also addresses topics, in particular in the field of enforcement, that are primarily a matter of public law. Please click on the link below to visit the series website: www.casebooks.eu/consumerLaw.