The Philosophy and Economics of EU Consumer Law Contrasted with Indian Consumer Law and Practice

Having been invited to this prestigious conference I first want to clarify what I want to talk about. The topic which has been assigned to me by the convenor in the framework of the GNLU Law and Economics Conference and which I readily accepted is a complex one because of the wealth of material both with regard to legislation and interpreting case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). I have – frequently with colleagues – written extensively on the subject matter, the last being a 400 p treatise on European Consumer Law.1 To make things somewhat easier for you, I have prepared an Annex I concerning first an overview of EU legislation and regulation, and an Annex II linking the philosophy and economics of EU consumer law to certain images of the consumer. Annex III is concerned with some findings on Indian consumer law which I prepared during two stays in India in 2013 and 2014, namely in New Delhi and in Bangalore in the context of a project managed by GIZ, the German development agency, with your Ministry of consumer affairs and where I had a chance to take interviews with academics, judges, consumer activists, and state officials. My findings were published in a German Festschrift2 and will also be available to the Indian reader. The structure of my paper will follow the Annexes. In a sort of overview, I will explain some of the specifics of EU consumer law – I will do that without going into any details so that we know what we are talking about (II). More extensive parts (III) will discuss the different and sometimes conflicting consumer images in EU law and propose a differentiated approach (IV) based on CJEU case law and referring to findings of recently quite popular behavioural economics. The last part (V) will come to some observations which I made during may work in India – you’re invited to discuss and even criticise them if you think my assessment is wrong. Due to time reasons I will present my findings about Indian consumer law only in an overview in the Annex but I will circulate my Festschrift paper to the participants of the conference

Reflections on Hans Micklitz’ Plea For a ‘Movable System’ (of Consumer Law): Something to Learn from the Experiences of Indian Consumer Law

The topic of the paper is based on a study done for GIZ, the German developmental agency concerning the improvement of consumer protection in India by the combined use of preventive and remedial justice which is possible under the Indian Consumer Protection Act (CPA) but not adequately implemented. The paper takes as a starting point Hans Micklitz’ concept of a “movable system of consumer law”, developed in the EU context whereby remedies under unfair commercial practices and unfair contract terms legislation should be applied in combination and not be separated into different “legal boxes” each following its own logic. The consequences of such an approach for rethinking Indian consumer law are presented with some reform proposals to be undertaken by the Indian legislator