Contractual networks and their Impact upon consumer well-being: legal regulation and prospects

Abstract

The subject of this research is the contractual (business) networks and their impact upon consumer well-being from the perspective of current legal regulation and prospects. As an example, the author chose an Italian model il contratto di rete. Attention is focused on such questions associated with the activity of contractual networks as the advantages for the companies that are part of the network with or without legal capacity; consumers; the so-called “beneficiary members”, who are not the parties to the network creation agreement, but may have benefits or costs from interaction of its members. The novelty of this research consists in determination of the advantages and disadvantages of the activity if contractual networks. It is also noted that the current trend towards creating business networks on a contractual basis (legal entity or contract) is carried out in terms of complementarity and economic autonomy for the purpose of obtaining competitive advantages by increasing productivity, innovation potential, profitability, etc., and raises issues on the liability with regards to binding results of network cooperation through creating a special form of their secondary impact upon the beneficiary members.