The Place of Consumer Contract Law Within the Process on European Contract Law

This paper shows the development of European consumer contract law within the whole area of European contract law. It explains in some detail the possible contents of one of the major options for the future – the development of a specific consumer contract law in form of a framework Directive. Such an instrument would combine the common denominators of the consumer contract Directives: the applicable definitions of a consumer and a trader, the right of withdrawal, the pre-contractual information obligations, the burden of proof, the private international law clause, and the nature of consumer law as mandatory law. Furthermore the paper shows how the Commission Communication of July 2001 and the Commission Action Plan of 2003 shape the process of European contract law. Finally, it analyses in particular the treatment of consumer contract law in the Action Plan.