Protection of consumer rights in the practice of the EU court

Abstract

Introduction. The paper highlights the issues of implementation of consumer protection mechanisms at two hierarchically subordinate levels – international and national. It is given the generalization of separately analyzed cases illustrating the proper practical implementation of consumer protection at the level of the EU Court of Justice. It is provided a generalized view of how theoretical consolidation of the rules meets the requirements of the present. The purpose of the paper is to present the practical results of the analysis of the European consumer protection system at the supranational and national levels of the EU. To do so, the following tasks need to be accomplished: to define the legislative regulation of European consumer policy and its basic principles, to outline the procedure for legislative regulation of consumer issues by the EU supranational institutions, to analyze the case law of the EU Court of Justice and to identify further trends in legal regulation in this area. Results. It is emphasized that it is the European Union that serves as a priority for the national systems of its member states. It is found that the States clearly follow the principles enshrined in certain Directives, but often face difficulties in interpretation, since not all the rules have been implemented in accordance with the fluidity of the modernized world, and therefore there is a need to apply to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a broader explanation. Despite certain difficulties, new mechanisms are increasingly being introduced to ensure the effectiveness of consumer protection at the international level. In particular, the doctrinal positions of individual scholars play an important role, which, in turn, are implemented in practice. Conclusion. It is noted that it is important to harmonize the national legislation of the Member States and the European legislation, since only then can the consumer protection sphere be properly regulated. In general, it is noted that the issue of building and maintaining consumer confidence in the market is a key one for European consumer policy. It cannot be ensured in the presence of unfair, aggressive and openly fraudulent trade practices, so the system must have a sufficient range of effective tools, both state and non-state, to prevent them.