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Weatherill, Stephen --- "Consumer Protection" [2006] ELECD 169; in Smits, M. Jan (ed), "Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law

Editor(s): Smits, M. Jan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420130

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Consumer Protection

Author(s): Weatherill, Stephen

Number of pages: 8

Extract:

18 Consumer protection*
Stephen Weatherill


Why, the sceptic may ask, might one suppose that the law should play a role
in protecting the consumer? Why not let the market take the strain?
Producers have to sell their goods to consumers in order to survive. They
will only be able to sell to consumers what consumers choose to buy.
Consumer preference will dictate what is made available. The `invisible
hand' of competition steers producers to behave in a manner that is respon-
sive to consumer preference.
This model of `perfect competition' in the market places the consumer in
a position of dominance. His or her choices serve to organize the market
and they drive an efficient allocation of resources. Where, then, might there
be a role for the law?
It is pertinent in the first place to acknowledge that it is tendentious to
assert that markets possess an autonomy from legal rules. At least in its
modern form the `market economy' is built on assumptions about a sup-
porting network of legal rules ­ contract, tort and the wider law of obliga-
tions ­ and an institutional underpinning supplied by the state, most
prominently in the shape of courts. The operation of the market is sus-
tained by the willingness of the state to provide facilities that ensure the via-
bility of essential components in a properly functioning market such as the
credible enforcement of long-term contractual commitments.
The law of consumer protection ranges across a wider field. The percep-
tion that ...