Choice of Law for Consumer Contracts in Theory and Practice

Consumers increasingly order goods or services abroad. This book investigates the laws which ensure that consumers are protected in cross-border scenarios. Drawing on case studies from across EU consumer law, Benedikt Schmitz presents a comprehensive guide to the challenging legal framework involved in regulating a continuing surge in online shopping.

Schmitz focusses on what law applies to a contract between a consumer and a foreign seller. He investigates both layers of the conflicts analysis: the conflicts layer, which points at the law of the consumer’s habitual residence or the chosen law, and the substantive layer, which ensures that the consumer cannot be deprived of the protection in their country of habitual residence, even if a foreign law is chosen. The substantive layer receives particular attention. Schmitz evaluates the extent of the restrictions imposed on party autonomy, the inapplicability of choice of law clauses, and the ways in which courts must ascertain and apply foreign law. The book argues that general principles of EU law, and not EU conflict-of-laws itself, require courts to apply the consumer protective provisions on their own motion.

Choice of Law for Consumer Contracts in Theory and Practice is essential reading for scholars and students of consumer law, European law, and private international law. Legal practitioners and policy regulators will similarly benefit from its practice-oriented approach.