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The Law Applicable to Consumer Contracts: Protection and Gaps in China and in Europe

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International Sale of Goods

Part of the book series: China-EU Law Series ((CELS,volume 5))

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Abstract

The law applicable to consumer contracts is an important issue concerning the international sale of goods. Very often, the consumer contracts concern sale of goods. For example, in Europe, the idea of protection of the consumers appeared in the 1970s with the development of the mail-order selling. Of course, goods were, at this period, in concern. Nowadays, consumer contracts are much more developed, especially because of the Internet. In international situations, the general conflict-of-laws rules of both systems seem to be unadapted.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For some observations on the impact of Internet, Smith (2000), p. 260.

  2. 2.

    For authors pleading for the introduction of such special rules before the adoption of the 2010 Statute, see Huang et al. (2008), p. 440.

  3. 3.

    Art. 118 § 2 and 120 of the Federal Law on Private International Law (18 December 1987). See esp. Vischer (1992), p. 161.

  4. 4.

    For the situation and the hesitations in France, Gaudemet-Tallon, Fasc. 552-15, n°63.

  5. 5.

    According to article 5§1 of the Rome Convention “This Article applies to a contract the object of which is the supply of goods or services to a person (‘the consumer`) for a purpose which can be regarded as being outside his trade or profession, or a contract for the provision of credit for that object”.

  6. 6.

    CJEU 20 January 2005, Gruber, C-464/01, Rec. I. 439, concl. F.G. Jacobs.

  7. 7.

    “This Article applies to a contract the object of which is the supply of goods or services ...”. For explanations about article 5, see Giuliano and Lagarde (1980), p. 23.

  8. 8.

    For more details, Brooke Overby (2006), p. 347.

  9. 9.

    Article 8 of the Law on the laws applicable to foreign-related civil relations of 2010: “Classification of foreign-related civil relations is governed by the law of the forum”.

  10. 10.

    Cerqueira et al. (2011), p. 54.

  11. 11.

    Article 5 §2 and 3.

  12. 12.

    Alexandre (2011), p. 114; Huo (2011), p. 1087.

  13. 13.

    Tu (2011), p. 581.

  14. 14.

    See in this book, Alexandre, Identification of the competent judge in China and in Europe—European solutions.

  15. 15.

    See in this book, Nord, Identification of the applicable law in China and in Europe.

  16. 16.

    Underlying the problems, Brand (2013), p. 194.

  17. 17.

    For an explanation of the mechanism, Pissler (2012), p. 33.

  18. 18.

    See Nishitani (2008), p. 94.

  19. 19.

    Mellone and Nord (2013), p. 168.

  20. 20.

    Article 5-1 of the Brussels Convention and the regulation Brussels I, article 7-1 of the regulation Brussels I bis. See Chapter I, Section I—International sale of goods and identification of the competent judge in China and in Europe.

  21. 21.

    For examples: see Civ. 1st 19 October 1999, Rev. crit. 2000, 29, n. P. Lagarde ; D. 2000, p. 8, obs. J. F. ; JDI 2000, 328, n. J.-B. Racine; D. 2000, 765, n. M. Audit; Civ. 1st 10 July 2001, Bull. civ. I, n°210; 23 May 2006, Bull. civ. I, n°258; R., p. 465; D. 2006. 2798, n. M. Audit; D. 2007. Pan. 1754, obs. P. Courbe and 2567, obs. S. Bollée; CCE 2006, n° 143, note C. Chabert; Dr. et patr. December 2006, p. 80, obs. M.-E. Ancel; RDC 2006. 1253, obs. P. Deumier; Rev. crit. DIP 2007. 85, n. D. Cocteau-Senn. For general comments, Vareilles-Sommières de (2006), p. 2464.

  22. 22.

    BGH 2 October 1993, IPRax 1994, 449 and 19 March 1997, Rev. crit. DIP 1998, 610, n. P. Lagarde.

  23. 23.

    For the notion of Overriding Mandatory Provisions in China, Molerus and Nord (2011), p. 133; Xu (1997), p. 186.

  24. 24.

    For a description of the evolution, see Lagarde (2001), p. 511.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    Nicolas Nord

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    Nicolas Nord

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France

    Gustavo Cerqueira

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Nord, N. (2017). The Law Applicable to Consumer Contracts: Protection and Gaps in China and in Europe. In: Nord, N., Cerqueira, G. (eds) International Sale of Goods. China-EU Law Series, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54036-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54036-8_10

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