Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn February 2016, the Feasibility Report on options for an EU ecolabel scheme for fishery and aquaculture products was published. The study did not make a strong case for the introduction of a seafood EU Ecolabel and it is unlikely that the European Commission will pursue this policy option. We argue that sustainability information on seafood should not be framed through the EU Ecolabel debate. The more pressing issue concerns self-declared sustainability claims on seafood products. As a possible solution, we propose to address these by re-invigorating the labelling rules on seafood information in the Regulation on the Common Organisation of the Markets in Fishery and Aquaculture Products.

The article is devoted to a little-studied phenomenon of the modern financial system, called "mis-seling", which is a series of interrelated unfair practices and methods of selling financial services that cause significant damage to the reputation of Russian banks and undermine the long-term loyalty of their customers. The purpose of this article is to reveal the essence of misselling as a complex legal, social, commercial and financial phenomenon, study its forms and methods, analyze the reasons for its spread in Russia, and develop proposals for protecting consumers from these practices. Achievement of articles' purpose is ensured by use of the historicalgenetic research method, analysis of the leading experts' publications and regulatory documentation in the field of responsible finance, generalization of empirical monitoring studies on the rights of financial services consumer protection. Results: a reconceptualization of mis-selling was carried out, which made it possible to give an expanded interpretation of this phenomenon as unfair commercial practice that violates consumer rights and contradicts the principles of responsible business conduct. It is shown that the prospects for large-scale ESG-transformation of the banking business, its restructuring on the principles of sustainable development, to a decisive extent depend on the solution of tasks to strengthen consumer protection. Conclusions: the implementation of the course towards the development of a modern, efficiently functioning financial sector of the economy, based on the principles of trust and competition and using tools that meet the needs of stakeholders, involves strengthening the social orientation of the development of the banking business, which will be facilitated by: a serious modernization of the consumer protection system, measures to expanding the jurisdictional powers of the Bank of Russia in the field of preventing administrative offenses, improving non-financial reporting and increasing the financial literacy of the population of the country.

Abstract: 2015 marks the tenth anniversary of Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Commercial Practices. Ever since its adoption, the effects of this directive on contract law have remained unclear. The ambiguity has primarily been caused by the separation between the law on unfair commercial practices and contract law that the directive introduced. In this article, I argue that despite the existence of this formal partition, Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Commercial Practices has, indeed, influenced and shaped contract law. In such manner, the directive has proven to be a subtle but powerful instrument aimed to contribute to the process of Europeanization of contract law. Résumé: En 2015 nous fêtons le dixième anniversaire de la Directive 2005/29/CE sur les pratiques commerciales déloyales. Depuis son adoption, les effets de cette directive sur le droit des contrats sont restés ambigus. Cette ambiguïté découle principalement de la séparation introduite entre le droit sur les pratiques commerciales déloyales et le droit des contrats par la directive elle-même. Dans cet article, je soutiens que, malgré l'existence de cette partition formelle, la directive 2005/29/CE sur les pratiques commerciales déloyales a, en pratique, influencé et modifié le droit des contrats. De cette manière, la directive s'est avérée être un instrument subtil, mais puissant, au service du processus d'européanisation du droit des contrats Zusammenfassung: Im Jahr 2015 feiert die Richtlinie 2005/29/EG über unlautere Geschäftspraktiken ihren zehnten Geburtstag. Seit ihrer Verabschiedung bestehen allerdings auch Unsicherheiten hinsichtlich ihrer konkreten Auswirkungen auf das Vertragsrecht. Diese beruhen im Wesentlichen auf der durch die Richtlinie eingeführten Differenzierung zwischen Lauterkeits- und Vertragsrecht. In diesem Artikel werde ich darlegen, dass die Richtlinie 2005/29/EG über unlautere Geschäftspraktiken – trotz dieser formalen Unterscheidung – auch das Vertragsrecht maßgeblich beeinflusst und geformt hat. Die Richtlinie hat sich insoweit als subtiles, aber wirkungsvolles Instrument erwiesen, welches einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur Europäisierung des Vertragsrechts geleistet hat.

AbstractThe ageless question regarding the interpretation of the average consumer benchmark at EU level recently gained momentum. The Court of Justice of the European Union has de facto deviated in a judgment from a strict application of the formula of the "reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect" consumer established in Gut Springenheide. This report investigates the possible implications of this judgment on the implementation of behavioural sciences in the "average consumer" benchmark.

Despite the frequent insistence in EU policies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) being voluntary, this paper argues that under EU consumer law CSR can be interpreted as legally binding. CSR is a strategic form of market communication as well as an inherent aspect of the market behaviour of companies. Since EU consumer law regulates the market communication and the market behaviour of traders, this area of law can be used to interpret CSR as a legally binding obligation, resulting in remedies available to consumers. This paper uses the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) to show how the ECJ could, in a suitable case, consider the breach of a CSR policy either as a form of misleading market communication or as unfair trading behaviour. This interpretation would allow for the additional regulation of CSR by the UCTD, which overlaps with the UCPD in terms of scope, interpretation and remedies. Once CSR is subject to EU market regulation laws, it can result additionally in contract regulation through EU consumer sales law.