There is a new partially functional website on the Common Frame of Reference for European Contract Law – and its Interaction with English and German Law: http://cfr.iuscomp.org/ . It is run by Gerhard Dannemann, colleague from Prof. Grundmann and Director, Centre for British Studies Humboldt-Universität:. A database on CFR materials is available there: http://cfr.iuscomp.org/db/

Secola: also have an EC Contract Law Database: http://www.secola.de/statutes.htm

Date:  11/10/2011: European Commission proposes an optional Common European Sales Law to boost trade and expand consumer choice (EN). An optional Common European Sales Law: Frequently asked questions (EN). The EU Consumer Rights Directive has been adopted but this will have no effect on financial services and labour law and tenancy law.

Wednesday 12 October (date to be confirmed): European Commission proposes European Contract law to boost trade and expand consumer choice

The European Commission will present proposals to bring more coherence to contract laws in the EU. Despite the success of the EU’s Single Market, barriers to cross-border trade remain. Many of these result from divergent sales laws between the 27 Member States. They make selling abroad complicated and costly, especially for small firms. Traders who are dissuaded from cross-border transactions due to contract law obstacles forgo at least €26 billion in intra-EU trade every year. Meanwhile, 500 million consumers in Europe lose out on greater choice and lower prices because fewer firms compete, particularly in smaller national markets. The Commission’s proposals will aim to break down these barriers.

The background:

Under the Europe 2020 strategy (IP/10/225), the Commission is tackling bottlenecks in the Single Market to drive economic recovery. This includes making progress towards a European contract law.

In July 2010, the Commission put forward several options in a Green Paper for a more coherent approach to contract law.

The event:

The Commission will present its proposals and publish two new Eurobarometer surveys. Vice-President Reding will hold a press conference and a technical briefing will also be held (to be confirmed).

The sources:

Contract law in the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/contract/index_en.htm

Vice-President Reding’s website:  http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/reding

The European Parliament backs the optional EU Contract law for b2c proposed by the EU’s Justice Commissioner (and European Commission Vice-President) Viviane Reding. Are all stakeholders and specialists from the legal traditions aware of the potential implications of such an optional law on the level of consumer protection for EU citizens? There needs to be more consultation, research and investigation on what bringing more coherence to contract law in Europe will mean for consumers. The press release stresses only „transaction costs (like adapting contractual terms and commercial policies or obtaining translation of the rules) and legal uncertainty“, but there is no mention of any impact assessment on potential outcomes for consumers when these decide to give up their national protection provisions in favour of the more business-friendly Law. Groups of academics and legal professionals, such as the EuSoCo Group want to look at the possibilities for this Optional Law to take account of more than just the transactional aspects of contracts.  Read press release below: Read the rest of this entry →

BEUC Press release 6 June 2011

EU Contract law – MEPs on the wrong track

The European Parliament votes this week Wednesday 8 on a report by MEP Diana Wallis (UK) supporting the European Commission’s proposal for a European contract law system.
The future European ‚Optional Instrument‘ or ’28th Regime’1, aims to establish a separate European system for contract law, as distinct from national law, which would govern day to day consumer contracts. Major concerns are held not only by consumer organisations, but by many stakeholders ranging from SMEs, major business representatives, to national law societies.
Fundamental flaws in the concept of an Optional Instrument for b2c contracts2 include the following:

• The Commission’s own EU-wide statistics found 79% of traders say the same legal rules across the EU would make little or no difference to boosting their cross border trade.
• ‚Optional‘ is not at all accurate: the business decides whether to use it or not, thereby deciding on the level of protection that the consumer would benefit from and putting the consumer in a ‚take it or leave it‘ situation.
• This instrument would create more complexity and daily confusion instead of more confidence and legal certainty not only for consumers but also for SMEs. It is unrealistic for consumers to make an informed choice between two legal systems (national and EU).

Monique Goyens, Director General of the European Consumers‘ Organisation (BEUC) commented:
„Vice President Reding’s ambition runs contrary to what consumers and SMEs want and expect the Commission to do to promote e-commerce. Instead, she pushes for high flying academic ideas which will not provide practical benefits to European citizens and contradict the Commission’s own statistics.“
„The stakeholders most concerned by this initiative, European consumers, SMEs and legal practitioners are aligned against it and have written jointly to MEPs asking them not to support it. An Optional Instrument will not help facilitating b2c cross-border transactions, but instead complicate them; in addition there is a clear risk that consumer protection standards will be weakened in many Member States.“

Dear partners of EuSoCo,

We will now meet with 17 persons on Wednesday 18th of May 2011 in Hamburg. (University of Hamburg Welckerstr.8 R 217). Annexed you find the latest programme, our memorandum, participants, tentative principles and a detailed Table of Contents proposed for our publication.

We look forward to seeing you all next week in Hamburg.

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eusocohamburg2011structurereifner

Map of Hotels in Hamburg and venue for the 18th

Map for evening meet-up Tuesday 17th

Expert Group Report on European contract law (May 2011)

„A European contract law for consumers and businesses: Publication of the results of the feasibility study carried out by the Expert Group on European contract law for stakeholders‘ and legal practitioners‘ feedback“

Following consultation (320 responses) of the Commission Green Paper on various legal instruments, the EU Commission wishes to propose an Optional Instrument (OI) for cross-border transactions covering all necessary rules for the life cycle of a contract between parties. On 3 May the Commission published the draft of 189 articles resulting from a one-year preparatory work by the 17 person Expert Group. EuSoCo should be a part of the discussions to be had following this feasibility study and should be involved in the preparation of any follow-up initiatives on European contract law.

Read the rest of this entry →

Results from the consultation on the “Green Paper from the Commission on policy options for progress towards a European Contract Law for consumers and businesses” can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/news/consulting_public/news_consulting_0052_en.htm.

Among the 319 responses they received is the EuSoCo Group’s submission (EuSoCo letter including our Declaration). It is located at the link above under the name “Europäischer Sozialvertragskodex – Code Européen des Contrats Sociaux – European Social Contracts Code – EuSoCo Group”