Unfair Commercial Practices in the New EU Member States

In 2005 the Institute completed a research project on the law of unfair commercial practices in the new Member States. The study was entirely funded by the European Commission.

The report was compiled between December 2004 and September 2005 by a group of academics and practitioners from the ten new EU Member States. It was commissioned by the Directorate-General Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission (DG SANCO) and conducted by Professor Cees van Dam and Erika Budaite. This project was directly linked to the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices (Directive 2005/29/EC of 11 May 2005). This Directive has to be implemented into national law by 12 June 2007 and provides for one binding set of rules, harmonizing the various different laws of the 25 Member States.

The report provides an analysis of the existing national rules, including case law, on unfair commercial practices between businesses and consumers in the ten new Member States. It complements the Analysis of National Fairness Laws Aimed at Protecting Consumers in Relation to Commercial Practices, coordinated by Professor Dr Reiner Schulze and Professor Dr Hans Schulte-Nölke. This analysis was published on the EU website in June 2003. However, the focus of the reports is slightly different. The 2003 Report was carried out to aid the Commission in the preparation of a possible European legal framework on fair commercial practices. The BIICL report aims to assist the European Commission in supervising the implementation by the Member States of the Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices.

For more information on this project please contact info@biicl.org.

Note: The copyright of this study belongs to the European Commission. In addition, the Commission adds the following disclaimer: 'These reports were produced by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (London) for DG Health & Consumer Protection and represent the views of the contractor or author. These views have not been adopted or in any way approved by the Commission and should not be relied upon as a statement of the Commission's or DG Health & Consumer Protection's views. The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in these reports, nor does it accept responsibility for any use made thereof.'