<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Consumer protection has been included among the EU policies by the Maastricht Treaty and has become one of the EU dominant policies. A consumer is considered as a weaker party in the private legal relationships and therefore should be protected against a stronger contract party. However, the question “who is a consumer” arises very often. The judicature of the Court of Justice of the EU proves that the notion of consumer is still not clearly defined in the secondary law of the EU. The present paper brings the overview how the notion of consumer has developed in the EU secondary law and in the judicature of the Court of Justice of the EU and it points out actual issues related to the notion of consumer.</p></abstract>

Consumer protection has been included among the EU policies by the Maastricht Treaty and has become one of the EU dominant policies. A consumer is considered as a weaker party in the private legal relationships and therefore should be protected against a stronger contract party. However, the question “who is a consumer” arises very often. The judicature of the Court of Justice of the EU proves that the notion of consumer is still not clearly defined in the secondary law of the EU. The present paper brings the overview how the notion of consumer has developed in the EU secondary law and in the judicature of the Court of Justice of the EU and it points out actual issues related to the notion of consumer.

The Notion of Consumer in the EU Law

Department of International Law and European Law, Faculty of Law, Pan–European University Bratislava

Department of European Policies, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra

EU agrarian Law

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Notion of Consumer in the EU Law"}

Consumer protection has been included among the EU policies by the Maastricht Treaty and has become one of the EU dominant policies. A consumer is considered...

The Notion of Consumer in the EU Law

Published Online: Dec 30, 2016

Page range: 1 - 12

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eual-2016-0006

Keywords
weaker party, consumer protection, consumer, natural person, legal entity

© 2016 Jarmila Lazíková et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Notion of Consumer in the EU Law

Published Online: Dec 30, 2016

Page range: 1 - 12

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eual-2016-0006

Keywordsweaker party, consumer protection, consumer, natural person, legal entity

© 2016 Jarmila Lazíková et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
weaker party, consumer protection, consumer, natural person, legal entity