The legal term of the “average consumer” was created by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to protect the average consumer against unfair commercial practises.
After the Second War World, many states were indeed inspired by Keynes's theory that aimed at division of resources and didn't allow States to intervene in the economy.
The first few member states of the European Union (EU) didn't plan for consumer protection: the Treaty of Rome contained in fact no formal legal basis for consumer protection, but in its 2nd article, it aimed “to promote economic and social progress and a high level of employment and to achieve balanced and sustainable development, in particular, through the strengthening of economic and social cohesion”.
Then the Advisory Assembly of the European Council, in 1973, presented the European Consumer Protection Charta in Resolution 543: In this resolution, the first definition of a ‘consumer' was found: A consumer is therefore considered to be “a person, physical or moral, to whom are sold goods or are provided services for private use”. In this text, consumer rights were enumerated for the first time: The right of consumer protection and assistance which guaranteed protection to the consumer against economic and material damage caused by goods and which also guaranteed easy access to justice; the right of compensation for damages; the right to information and education and the right of representation. In 1995, Thierry Bourgoignie, who chaired the Belgian “Commission d'étude pour la réforme du droit de la Consommation” (CERDC) , proposed to extend the notion of the consumer to moral persons. This interpretation was refused by the ECJ in the “Cape Snc v Idealservice Srl” case and the definition of a consumer remained restrictive.
[...] Abbreviations ECJ : European Court of Justice EU : European Union BGB : Bürgerliches Gesetz Buch (German Civil Code) BGH : Bundesgerichtshof ( German federal Court of Justice) Lexicon Consumer : every individual who uses a good or a service generated within the economy Principle of concurrent cover (or “principle of subsidiarity”): the Community shall act within the limits of the powers conferred upon it by Treaty of Maastricht Statutory law : written law set down by a legislature or a governing authority Case law : principles and rules of law created by courts of justice Consumer research poll : an inquiry into public opinion conducted by interwieving a sample of consumers CERDC: [...]
[...] Some liberal authors like Mestmacker consider that the heart of the European economy is the guarantee of freedom rights, especially the „individual right of the citizen to take part in an economic community free of borders“ and then to be a real “homo economicus”: this is the economic model of a rational, self-interested and perfectly informed consumer who tries to accumulate wealth and work as little as possible. Some argue that this model of protection is contrary to freedom of competition. [...]
[...] “Average” is the consumer from the consumer group who received an education through school, newspapers, television and radio and who doesn't need to catch up certain information to understand the full message of the advertisement. Furthermore, when a specific group of consumers which is particularly vulnerable (children, seniors) is targeted by professional sellers, the consumer of reference should be the average consumer of this specific group. In those cases, the member of reference is more precise than the average consumer. [...]
[...] But this protection doesn't have to rely generally on the consumer itself but it should be linked to concrete risks and dangers: it is indeed to be justified by specific deficits in particular law situations or problems connected to the structural subordination of the consumer. Pfeiffer[10] defines the function of the conception of consumer as following: function of the conception of consumer consists designating the person who, in specific situations needs a further protection of his commercial freedom of choice, which would add to the European contract law”. [...]
[...] In this text, consumer rights were enumerated for the first time: The right of consumer protection and assistance which guaranteed protection to the consumer against economic and material damage caused by goods and which also guaranteed easy access to justice; the right of compensation for damages; the right to information and education and the right of representation. In 1995, Thierry Bourgoignie, who chaired the Belgian “Commission d'étude pour la réforme du droit de la Consommation” (CERDC)[1], proposed to extend the notion of the consumer to moral persons. [...]
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