1. Consumer Protection in EU - Law
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

2. Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings
EU – Directives I
EU – politics: to install an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is guaranteed.
Art. 153 of the Treaty establishing the EU-Community: basis of uniform minimum set of fair rules governing the contracts concluded by consumers in the area of the Member States.
These rules are laid down in EU-Directives.
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

3. Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings
EU-Directives II
Obligation of the Member States to implement the content of the Directives into national law within a certain period
Minimum content of the directives
In consumer protection - politics: e.g. directive 85/374 product – liability for defective products; 85/577 doorstep-selling contracts; 1999/44 sales of consumer goods
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

4. EU-Directive on liability on defective products I
Purpose of this Directive is to create a liability without fault on the part of the producer as the sole means of adequately solving the problem, peculiar to our age of increasing technicality.
Art. 1 of this Directive requires that the producer is liable for damage caused by a defect in his product.
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

5. EU-Directive on liability on defective products II
This protection requires that all producers involved in the production process should be made liable (who has supplied the finished product, component part or any raw material).
The circle of „producer“ has been enlarged to any person who presents himself as a producer by putting his name or trade mark on the defective product, to any person who has imported the defective product into the Community in the course of his business and to any person who has supplied the product if the producer cannot be identified.
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

6. EU-Directive on liability on defective products III
„product“ means all movables and includes electricty.
The injured person has to prove the damage, the defect and the causal relationship between defect and damage.
A product is defective when it does not provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect (excluding any misuse of the product not reasonable under the circumstances).
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

7. EU-Directive on liability on defective products IV
A product is not defective for the only reason that a better product has been introduced in the market.
The producer is not liable if he proves that
he didn‘t put the product in the circulation,
the defect didn‘t exist at that time,
the state of scientific and technical knowledge at this time was not such to enable to discover the existence of the defect.
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings

8. EU-Directive on liability on defective products V
„Damage“ means
Damage caused by death or personal injuries,
Damage to, or destruction of, any item of property other than the defective product itself, with a lower threshold of 500 €, provided that the item of property
is of a type ordinarly intended for private use or consumption, and
was used by the injured person mainly for his own private use or consumption.
Consumer Protection in EU - Law, Prof. Dr. Michael Frings