The Image(s) of the ‘Consumer’ in EU Law: Legislation, Free Movement and Competition Law

Organisers: Professor Stephen Weatherill & Dr Dorota Leczykiewicz

The purpose of the conference is to discuss the concepts of ‘consumer welfare’, ‘consumer protection’ and ‘consumer interest’ in different contexts of EU law: legislation, free movement and competition law. The theme of the conference is inspired by the persisting questions about how many visions of the consumer there are in EU law, and whether they are consistent and sincere, or merely instrumental to the achievement of other goals. We are all ‘consumers’ and we are all different: are the different types of ‘consumer’ we find scattered across EU law (empowered, confident, alert, information-seeking, victim of unfairness, vulnerable) apt reflection of rich diversity or do they create a troublingly chaotic landscape? Discussing these questions seems particularly timely a few years after the Treaty of Lisbon, which reformed Union objectives to include a ‘social market economy’, and the Charter which elevated ‘consumer protection’ to the status of a fundamental right. Our aim is to encourage discussion of the consumer-related considerations in different contexts of EU law – both where the EU sets the rules and where EU law checks the validity of public and private practices at national level - and encourage reflection on whether there are and whether there should be common assumptions, principles and trends running through different parts of EU law. The ambition is to explore the image or images of the ‘consumer’ as a bridging concept which connects the distinct strands of analysis in EU law, and against whose background shared approaches, but also mutual planned or unplanned incoherencies, could be assessed.

Conference papers will consider how consumers are implicated in the decision as to whether the EU has a competence to legislate under Article 114 TFEU, in particular in connection with the constitutional limits which the Court of Justice imposes on the use of this competence conferring provision, and how the consumer interest is interpreted in existing legislation, as well as how it has been defined in recent preparatory documents and in the Commission’s policy statements. While the Commission focuses mainly on ‘empowering’ consumers through free movement law and through EU legislative intervention the contributors will be encouraged to discuss how to incorporate other goals beyond ‘empowerment’ within EU consumer policy. Other papers will look at the extent to which the consumer interest is the rationale behind EU free movement law, and how consumer preferences and habits are broken down by EU law’s insistence on ensuring access of foreign products and services to markets of the Member States, as well as at the use by the Court of Justice of the EU of the consumer protection justification in the context of Articles 34 and 56 TFEU. Papers on EU competition law will undoubtedly focus on the 2004 Commission Guidelines on the application of Article 101 TFEU, where protection of competition has been expressed as ‘a means of enhancing consumer welfare’. We also wish to approach the question of consumer protection from a private law perspective and, hopefully, explore the potential role of consumer interest in the creation of common European contract law.

The project is partially funded by a grant from the John Fell Fund of the University of Oxford.

The conference is accredited with 10 CPD hours by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and the Bar Standards Board.

Speakers

Dr Albertina Albors-Llorens (University of Cambridge)

Professor Hugh Beale (University of Warwick)

Professor Hugh Collins (University of Oxford)

Professor Gareth Davies (VU University Amsterdam)

Professor Graeme Dinwoodie (University of Oxford)

Dr Dev Gangjee (University of Oxford)

Professor Stefan Grundmann (Humbolt University and European University Institute)

Professor Chris Hodges (University of Oxford)

Professor Geraint Howells (University of Manchester)

Mr Angus Johnston (University of Oxford)

Professor Alison Jones (King’s College London)

Dr Dorota Leczykiewicz (University of Oxford)

Dr Vanessa Mak (Tilburg University)

Professor Hans Micklitz (European University Institute)

Dr Lucinda Miller (University College London)

Professor Iain Ramsay (University of Kent)

Professor Norbert Reich (University of Bremen)

Professor Sybe de Vries (Utrecht University)

Professor Stephen Weatherill (University of Oxford)

Please click on the link below to see the full programme

Registration fee: £95.00

Reduced fee for full-time registered students: £45.00

Conference dinner: £66.00 (optional)

Please register here for the conference 

Accommodation

The following accommodation in St Anne’s College (the same college as the conference venue) is available to conference participants (subject to availability and confirmation). Please book accommodation using the general conference registration facility.

• En-suite rooms - £80.00 per night (including breakfast)
• Standard student rooms (non-en-suite) - £50.00 per night (including breakfast)

Accommodation is available on 26, 27 and 28 March, although there are only a limited number of rooms available on 26th and 28th and a limited number of standard rooms on all three nights.

NB It is only possible to book one type of accommodation (ie either en-suite or standard) for the duration of your stay.