How did industrialization drive the development of consumer rights and protections in the USA? How have these laws defended consumers against business fraud, deceptive advertising, industrial pollution, and unsafe or unethical practices? Why have opinions about the value of consumer rights and the need for business regulation become so politically polarizing? Which activists, laws, events, and agencies have had the greatest impact on consumer rights? This all-in-one resource answers these questions and many more, providing readers with insights into the past, present, and possible futures of consumer rights in America.
The book's opening chapters explore the history and evolution of consumer rights, paying particular attention to the laws and arguments upon which those protections were built and hold continued importance. Later chapters explore how consumer rights have evolved in specific industries, including food and beverage; cosmetics; health care and pharmaceutical; transportation; and banking and finance. Together, this coverage provides a wide-ranging resource for understanding the state of consumer protection and business regulation in the 21st century.The question of how to properly enforce against RPM has been a contentious debate for decades on both sides of the Atlantic. The catalyst is the acceptance that RPM can generate both anti-competitive effects and pro-competitive efficiencies that need to be properly balanced to ensure against Type I/Type II errors and to create viable legislation. Part I focuses on 100 years of US origins and the current legal approach to VR enforcement, which reveals the precedent responsible for the transition between per se illegality and the rule of reason thresholds at the federal level. Nine anti-competitive and 19 pro-competitive theoretical models are also introduced to clearly demonstrate the true nonconsensus existent between economists as to whether RPM is deleterious enough to justify a stringent approach to RPM regulation. Part II closely examines the EU origins and current legal structure, where RPM has maintained its hardcore by-object designation pursuant to Art. 101(1) TFEU with the consequence of having no safe harbours, no applicability of the De Minimus Doctrine, an onerous negative rebuttable presumption, non-severability of the agreement and almost no chance of obtaining an exemption under Art. 101(3). This is exacerbated by the EC's lack of guidance on how to prove all conditions necessary for an Art. 101(3) exemption and when a vertical arrangement actually escapes Art. 101(1) applicability. The aim of this book is to examine the economic models, historical origins and legal structures of the US/EU regimes to develop proposals on how to modify the EU's current legal structure to ensure proper enforcement of RPM behaviour that actually enhances legal certainty through a more aligned approach at the national level. Part III proposes five solutions which scrutinise the concepts of appreciability, hardcore and by-object restraints, to implement modifications to EU's current legal framework to ensure RPM receives reasonable and equitable treatment in line with economic theory.
An accident happened in the North Sea and I need a complete overview of the rules regarding oil pollution at sea. I need to draft a legal advice for a financial institution on paperless trade finance. I wish to have the legal rules applicable to copyrights and trademarks at hand during my client's meeting. As a student, I wish to have one compendium in which the most important materials and legal provisions on (International) Commercial Law are gathered. For these and many more examples, one can rely on the Materials on Commercial Law.
Indeed, this reader bundles in three volumes the most important materials - even those published by soft-law organisations and not always easy to access by the public - in the eclectic field of commercial law. The reader is user-friendly via its index at the beginning of each Volume. The legislative texts are categorized per legal domain. In short, the reader is indispensable for every student, practitioner, magistrate and in-house counsel active in International Business & Trade.This book analyses the transformation of consumer law and policy in Europe from 4 perspectives: first, the temporal transformation, i.e., changes that can be tracked from the turn of the millennium; secondly, the substantive dimension, i.e., changes in the scope of the rights and remedies provided by consumer law, as well as the underpinning values; thirdly, the institutional dimension, i.e., changes in the role of national courts, national Parliaments, consumer agencies, and consumer organisations; and fourth, the procedural element, i.e., the shift from individual enforcement via courts to enforcement by public regulators, consumer associations, alternative dispute resolution, and the development of collective enforcement exercised by consumer agencies and/or consumer organisations.
With contributions by leading consumer law scholars from across Europe, this book is a fascinating account of how consumer law has often been shaped by national as much as European interests.This book looks at the consumer protection offered in a range of Asian countries, for example China, Japan, and South Korea in key areas such as consumer sales law, unfair terms, product liability, and unfair commercial practices. However, it is interesting to note that consumer protection is on the rise everywhere and to compare how this differs depending upon the legal cultures. It is also fascinating to reflect on the influence of models for law reform such as the EU laws. ASEAN has also affected the development of consumer policy for its member states.
The book takes the form of national reports which explain the development of the law and also shed light on how the law works in practice. The book also contains thematic reports which look at each area of the law from a comparative perspective. Commentators from around the globe reflect on their impression of Asian consumer law based on their own differing legal systems and benchmarks. A must-read for anyone with an interest in consumer law in Asia and beyond, this book will form the basis of further research and discussion internationally.This book analyses the history of the common law foundations of consumer law, and encourages readers to rethink the role that consumer law plays in our society.
Consumer law is often constructed as purely statute-based law. However - as this collection will demonstrate - this is far from the truth. Much of the history of the common law concerns consumer transactions and markets. Case law has often established or modified the ground rules of consumer markets, has had a patterning effect on the economic organisation of markets, and has expressed cultural visions of the market and consumers. An analysis of landmark cases of consumer law allows many traditional cases to be viewed through a new and distinct lens, providing significant academic and intellectual value. The collection also includes a unique socio-legal perspective, considering the role that consumer law has played in addressing racial discrimination, LGBTQ challenges and the rights of women. This collection of landmark cases demonstrates the theoretical and practical significance of consumer law through a wide range of contributions by distinguished authors from the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Australia.This book looks at the consumer protection offered in a range of Asian countries, for example China, Japan, and South Korea in key areas such as consumer sales law, unfair terms, product liability, and unfair commercial practices. However, it is interesting to note that consumer protection is on the rise everywhere and to compare how this differs depending upon the legal cultures. It is also fascinating to reflect on the influence of models for law reform such as the EU laws. ASEAN has also affected the development of consumer policy for its member states.
The book takes the form of national reports which explain the development of the law and also shed light on how the law works in practice. The book also contains thematic reports which look at each area of the law from a comparative perspective. Commentators from around the globe reflect on their impression of Asian consumer law based on their own differing legal systems and benchmarks. A must-read for anyone with an interest in consumer law in Asia and beyond, this book will form the basis of further research and discussion internationally.EU consumer law affords a number of substantive rights to consumers. Often however, the protection of these rights is undermined as a consequence of the complexity and lack of knowledge in the Member States of EU consumer legislation and case law. This volume presents a comparative examination of the enforcement of these rights in the EU Member States, with an extensive empirical evaluation of national procedural rules and practices. Following a comprehensive assessment of the nature and characteristics of EU consumer law, the volume identifies and evaluates key procedural themes that shape the equivalent and effective protection of EU consumer rights in light of European Court of Justice case law.
Alongside Impediments of National Procedural Law to the Free Movement of Judgments: Luxembourg Report on European Procedural Law Volume I, this volume offers the most comprehensive, empirically-driven comparative investigation of national civil procedure thus far undertaken in Europe. Using an extensive dataset comprising hundreds of interviews and responses to a multi-language online survey, it examines the rules of civil procedure in all EU Member States, and identifies their impact on the protection of consumers under EU consumer law. This volume will be of interest to all practitioners, academics and policymakers with a focus on judicial cooperation, civil justice and consumer protection, and will facilitate a better understanding of the impact of national procedural laws on the effectiveness of EU consumer protection.