The Protection of Lithuanian Consumers against Unfair Contract Terms

Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004. This paper presents the outcome of a research project on the protection provided to Lithuanian consumers by the legislation adopted to transpose the provisions of Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair contract terms into national law. This research was supported by the Eurofaculty of Vilnius University in May/June 2005.     

Unfair Contract Terms Under Greek Law: Case Law Developments

This note examines a decision by the Greek Supreme Court which offers an interpretation of the unfair term provision in consumer protection law. The case concerned a class action by a consumer organization against a commercial bank. The decision makes a breakthrough in two related respects. First, the Court not only interprets the national law in the light of the EU Directive on Unfair Contract Terms, but also adopts rules of interpretation and reasoning that run parallel to the latest European discussion on unfair contract terms. Second, in an unprecedented manner for Greek case law, it declares a large number of contractual clauses to be unfair, hence broadening consumer protection significantly. Most commercial banks in Greece are now under an obligation to modify their pre-formulated contracts in order to comply with the Court's interpretation of the provision on unfair terms in the Consumer Protection Act.     

Unfair Consumer Contract Terms Under Macedonian Law: How the Old and the New Function in Practice

This article analyses the functioning in practice of the system of substantive regulation of unfair terms in consumer contracts, introduced into Macedonian law as part of the harmonization obligations of the EU accession process. Specifically, the article seeks to establish the possible reasons for the absence of substantial evidence of application of the rules on unfair contract terms in consumer contracts in Macedonian practice. In providing an explanation, the focus is on the transposition of the consumer acquis and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive into national law, the enforcement structure for consumer law, and the relationship with the pre-existing civil law. In sum, the inconsistencies and incompleteness of the transposition, the weak and complex enforcement structure, as well as the unsettled relationship with the already existing civil law rules on similar topics have all contributed to weaken the practical significance of the special law on unfair contract terms.     

Behavioural Economics: Next Steps

This essay briefly reviews select key accomplishments of a young field, behavioural economics, and then turns to suggest additional steps that are called for by the nature of the subject (economic behaviour) and the approach to its study embodied in this relatively new field (for a previous such survey, please see Fudenberg (Journal of Economic Literature, 44:694–711, 2006)).     

Unfair Terms in Contracts: Proposals for Reform in the UK

The English and Scottish Law Commissions have made radical proposals for simplifying UK law on unfair terms in consumer contracts, combining the Regulations that implement the Directive and the earlier legislation into a single instrument that is to be written in language that would be clear and accessible to consumers and businesspeople. The article discusses some of the difficult policy choices involved in combining the different approaches of the two existing instruments, what is needed in order to make the legislation understandable to the lay person, and the extent to which the case of Commission v The Kingdom of the Netherlands requires Member States to use the language of the Directive when implementing it. The Law Commissions also proposed to extend the broader controls found in the Directive to business-to-business contracts, but the proposals did not find favour with the business community.     

The Empire Strikes Back: Digital Control of Unfair Terms of Online Services

The authors argue that it is possible to partly automate the process of abstract control of fairness of clauses in online consumer contracts. The authors present a theoretical and empirical argument for this claim, including a brief presentation of the software they have designed. This type of automation would not replace human lawyers but would assist them and make their work more effective and efficient. Policy makers should direct their attention to the potential of using algorithmic techniques in enforcing the law regarding unfair contractual terms, and to facilitating research on and ultimately implementing such technologies.     

电子合同中格式条款的法律规制研究

现代社会的消费者已经越来越多地利用互联网作为平台进行网上交易.电子合同中的格式条款以其加速交易过程、降低交易成本、提高经济效率的功能和特点,成为电子合同中的重要工具和常见的合同订立形式.由于格式条款是由一方当事人预先拟定,常常伴有减轻或免除拟约者已方责任,加重对方责任或者限制,剥夺对方权利之行为,不合理分配合同风险等不公平的内容,应对其加以立法规制和行政规制,使其在发挥经济效率的同时符合社会公平、正义的价值理念.     

Overview of Behavioural Economics Elements in the OECD Consumer Policy Toolkit

The note summarizes the history and contents of the OECD Consumer Policy Toolkit. It shows how the elements related to behavioural economics appear in the consumer policy of OECD countries as presented in the Toolkit. In particular, I look at the methods of detecting market malfunctioning and at the tools aimed at counteracting them.     

Wanted: a Bigger Stick. On Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts with Online Service Providers

The Unfair Contract Terms Directive offers consumers protection from pre-formulated imbalanced contract terms. While the standard terms and conditions of online service providers have previously been accused of harming clients of such online services, a comprehensive analysis of the potential unfair character of such terms and conditions in line with the interpretation of the Directive supplied by the CJEU has not yet been provided. This paper aims to fill in this gap in the academic literature. It identifies several types of contractual terms used by international online service providers in their consumer contracts, which are unlikely to pass the Directive’s unfairness test.     

增值税转型的制度经济学分析

现行生产型增值税的制度安排和制度结构的净收益小于消费型增值税.从各行业增值税税负受行业周期性影响以及增值税转型对税收收入的影响的角度看,增值税的制度变迁定位为中口径模式比小口径模式更具科学性和可行性.     

Consumer Policy in a Market Economy Considerations from the Perspective of the Economics of Information,the New Institutional Economics as well as Behavioural Economics

The question concerning when a governmental intervention in the market system is justified has occupied economists from the very beginning and has been a controversial discussion topic for just as long. Against this background, with respect to modern consumer policy, which still represents a relatively young field in the theory of economic policy, it is vital to find sound economic reasons for governmental regulations in order to protect consumers. Therefore, the article attempts to assess what the various economic literatures have added to our understanding of good consumer policy. For this reason, those policy implications that might flow from different theoretical approaches in order to broaden the foundation of an economic justification for consumer policy will be analysed. For this purpose, the consumer policy implications of the Economics of Information will be described, including a denomination of some certain problems all of which are not covered satisfactorily by this approach. Subsequently and in order to amend the informational economics framework, further economical approaches from New Institutional Economics, Behavioural Economics as well as Behavioural Consumer Research, which provide a complementary analysis of consumer behaviour in consideration of the respective decision-making situations and determining constraints (formal and informal rules, cognitive and emotional boundaries), will be discussed comparatively with respect to their consumer policy implications.     

沪深300指数期货合约(征求意见稿)条款的解读

近期中国金融期货交易所推出了沪深300指数期货合约(征求意见稿)的条款.本文根据国际市场的通行做法和中国的具体情况,对该合约的具体条款进行了分析.在肯定大部分条款积极作用的同时,也对个别条款存在的不足提出了自己的看法,并给出相应的建议.     

政府预算的契约经济学分析——委托代理理论的研究视角

政府预算是在总体资源有限的前提下,基于增进整个社会资源配置使用效率或改善社会公平的目标,对可支配资源的安排、配置与调整。从法律角度看,它是一本以公法为基础、配置社会公众让渡的经济资源,并向其提供"一揽子"公共商品或公共服务的综合性契约。政府预算制度的理论创新应以政府部门为界,从外部和内部两个层面入手。政府预算制度所确定的是各个预算契约参与者进行博弈的基本规则,其博弈的结果即为达成某种均衡。信息和激励约束是影响政府预算契约效果的两个最重要因素。     

Unfair credit allocations

This article investigates the impact of credit allocation on heterogeneous wealth entrepreneurs. We show that with decreasing risk aversion and unobservable wealth, poorer borrowers exert more effort. As a consequence of endogenous adverse selection, they are either excluded from the market or necessarily subsidize richer borrowers in a pooling equilibrium resulting in a paradoxical and inequitable redistribution. Alternatively, a less likely separating equilibrium may occur, in which poor types bear the entire weight of separation in the form of excess risk taking.     

合同农业产生的交易成本经济学机理

以产业化方式经营农业已成为现代农业的重要特征。在"公司+农户"的产业化组织模式中,通过合同建立交易关系是普遍的组织形式。基于交易成本经济学的理论逻辑分析表明:受农业特性以及农产品市场结构转变的影响,随着组织形式向科层或市场集中,组织成本曲线将出现非线性的增长趋势。采用合同交易方式是公司、农户在既定的约束条件下,对交易成本和管理成本进行权衡的选择结果,由此获得相对于企业与市场的组织优势。但在实践中,契约合作型"公司+农户"的组织形式所蕴涵的优势并非完全无条件地展示,组织优势的发挥依赖于好的治理机制。     

浅议法经济学视野下合同法中的效益性

在社会经济与法律全面渗透和融合的今天,法经济学的兴起,无疑是一种顺应时代的全新思维方法,它运用包括成本—效益在内的经济理论方法和价值观研究分析评判几乎所有的法律问题,给人以更深的启迪,对最具经济性的经济法无疑更有＂他山之石,可以攻玉＂的效果,在经济法中,合同法研究如何使财产动态调整到最佳使用者手中,从而使效益最大化,这是经济法学中的重点问题,也是它得以不断完善的基础。