The Limits of Eclecticism in Consumer Law: National Struggles and the Hope for a coherent European Contract Law. A Comment on the ECJ's and the FCJ's "heininger"-decisions

German Law Journal

Volumn 3, Issue 8, 2002, Pages

  Calliess, Gralf Peter ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84926081096     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20718322     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S2071832200015261     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. However, this absence of any coherent principle in the substance is not even the worst thing with the current regulation. The very basic problem with all European private law directives is, that they do follow the "minimum harmonisation approach" established in the Commissions White Paper on the single market back in 1986, but do not provide for the "mutual recognition" of private laws in the non-harmonised fields ("home-state principle" or "country of origin approach"), which is inherent to the so-called "Cassis-Philosophy". (27) The 1980 Rome Convention (28) on the Law applicable to Contractual Obligations abolished the traditional home-state principle of Private International Law in the case of cross-border consumer contracts. The newly established consumer-state principle in connection with the fact, that the minimum harmonisation directives are – without any objective rationale - transposed into national private laws in very different ways, here and there providing a so-called "higher level of protection" (is a cooling-off period of ten working days really a substantially higher level of protection than a period of two weeks?), led to a situation of complex fragmentation of private laws, which would not have existed without such directives. As is highlighted by the Lando-Principles (29), the traditional national private law systems outside of the new consumerism are still guided by common European principles. With a deepening Common Market in Europe and growing globalisation catalysed by E-Commerce the consumer-state principle may turn out detrimental to consumers (6) Verbraucherkreditgesetz vom 17.12.1990 (BGBl. I 2840), today incorporated into sections 491 ff. BGB, see Markus Artz, Neues Verbraucherkreditrecht im BGB, in: Tobias Helms et al. (ed.), Das neue Schuldrecht, Jahrbuch Junger Zivilrechtswissenschaftler 2001, Stuttgart 2001: available at http://www.jura.uni-
2. Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), the decision is published in: (2000) Wertpapiermitteilungen [WM] p. 26.
3. Directive 85/577/EEC (OJ 1985 L 372, p. 31): available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/developments/door_sale/index_en.html
4. Directive 87/102/EEC (OJ 1987 L 42, p. 48) as amended by Directive 90/88/EEC (OJ 1990 L 61, p. 14) and in the meantime as well amended by Directive 98/7/EC, which was not relevant in the ECJ-Case: all available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/developments/cons_cred/index_en.html
5. Gesetz über den Widerruf von Haustürgeschäften und ähnlichen Geschäften, of 16 January 1986 (BGBl. [official Bulletin] I p. 122), which has been integrated into the the German Civil Code (the "BGB") as of 1 January 2002, [i.e. now section 312 BGB] by means of the Legislation on the Modernisation of the Law of Obligations (Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Schuldrechts, of 26 November 2001, BGBl. I p. 3138). For extensive information and references, see http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~Lorenz/schumod/
6. Now section 312 a BGB.
7. freiburg.de/Junge.Zivilrechtswissenschaftler/Freiburg2001/Tagungsband/Artz.pdf
8. Now section 491 para. 3 No. 1 BGB.
9. Now section 495 BGB.
10. The lower Court decisions being published in: WM 1998, 1723 and WM 1999, 728.
11. EUGH Decision of 13 December 2001 (C-481/99) "Heininger v Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG", (2002) Zeitschrift für Bank- und Börsenrecht [ZBB], p. 29; also available at http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=C481%2F99&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100; see also the "Opinion of the General Advocate of 12 July 2001", available at http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgibin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=C-481%2F99&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100
12. BGH Decision of 9 April 2002 (XI ZR 91/99) ZBB 2002, p. 194: available at http://www.rws-verlag.de/
13. For a discussion see Peter Derleder, Der Widerruf des Haustürgrundpfandkredits, ZBB 2002, p. 202. See also the references in the BGH decision of 9 April 2002.
14. See the information given and the various links at http://www.immogeschaedigt.de/Aktuelles.htm
15. See for the background Jörg Stüsser, Bankenhaftung bei gescheiterten Immobilien-Treuhandmodellen, in: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift [NJW] 1999, 1586.
16. Now section 358 BGB.
17. Vgl. DIE ZEIT http://www.zeit.de/2002/14/Wirtschaft/200214_schrottgrundstue.html and http://www.zeit.de/2002/24/Wirtschaft/200224_zwischenruf.html
18. In addition to "doorstep-selling" and "consumer credits" as well "distant selling", "package travel", and "unfair contract terms": see http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/index_en.html
19. Schmidt-Räntsch, Reintegration der Verbraucherschutzgesetze durch den Entwurf eines Schuldrechtsmodernisierungsgesetzes, in: Schulze/Schulte-Nölke (eds.), DIE SCHULDRECHTSREFORM VOR DEM HINTERGRUND DES GEMEINSCHAFTSRECHTS 169 ff. (2001).
20. See Christoph Safferling, Re-Kodifizierung des BGB im Zeitalter der Europäisierung des Zivilrechts – ein Anachronismus?, in: Tobias Helms et al. (eds.), DAS NEUE SCHULDRECHT, Jahrbuch Junger Zivilrechtswissenschaftler 2001, Stuttgart 2001: available at http://www.jura.unifreiburg.de/Junge.Zivilrechtswissenschaftler/Freiburg2001/Tagungsband/Safferling.pdf
21. For the related problems see Wulf-Henning Roth, Transposing pointillistic EC guidelines into sys-tematic national Codes - problems and consequences, contribution to the Rome Conference of Secola, June 2001; see also the contributions to Grundmann/Medicus/Rolland (eds.), EUROPÄISCHES KAUFGEWÄHRLEISTUNGSRECHT (2000).
22. Peter Schlechtriem, Entwicklung des deutschen Schuldrechts und europäische Rechtsangleichung, in: Tobias Helms et al. (eds.), DAS NEUE SCHULDRECHT, Jahrbuch Junger Zivilrechtswissenschaftler 2001, Stuttgart 2001: available at http://www.jura.unifreiburg.de/Junge.Zivilrechtswissenschaftler/Freiburg2001/Tagungsband/Schlechtriem.pdf
23. Bundestag Drucksache 14/9266, available at http://dip.bundestag.de/ (= Dokumentation in ZBB 2002, 233 available at http://www.rws-verlag.de/), and Bundesrat Drucksache 503/02, available at http://www.parlamentsspiegel.de/cgi-bin/hyperdoc/show_dok.pl?k=BBD503/02
24. Peter Mankowski, Zur Neuregelung der Widerrufsfrist bei Fehlen einer Belehrung im Verbraucherschutzrecht, in: (2001) Juristenzeitung [JZ] pp. 745 ff.
25. See the overview in Derleder, supra note 12, pp. 209 ff. (25) And not only for consumer contracts: see Stefan Grundmann, Consumer Law, Commercial Law, Private Law - how can the Sales Directive and the Sales Convention be so similar?, presentation at: Rome conference of Secola, June 2001.
26. Communication on European Contract Law, COM 398 (2001) final, including the responses to the communication and follow-up documents available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/developments/contract_law/index_en.html; Green Paper on EU Consumer Protection, COM(2001) 531 final, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/, which was discussed on the London Secola Conference in May 2002 (www.secola.org); hereto, see also ..., (2002) European Review of Private Law p. .
27. See ECJ of 20 February 1979 (C 120/78) "Cassis de Dijon"; and the Commission White Paper on the Single Market COM (1985) 310; see also Astrid Epiney in: Calliess/Ruffert (eds.), KOMMENTAR ZUM EUV UND EGV, 2nd Ed. July 2002, Art. 28 EGV (EC-Treaty) No. 20 et seq.
28. See http://www.rome-convention.org/
29. Available at http://www.cbs.dk/departments/law/staff/ol/commission_on_ecl/pecl_full_text.htm
30. For the concept of transaction costs in international trade see Matthias Busse, Transaktionskosten und Wettbewerbspolitik, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb (WuW) 2002, 112; for the relevance of legal transaction costs see Gralf-Peter Calliess, Rechtssicherheit und Marktbeherrschung im elektronischen Welthandel, in: Juergen Donges/Stefan Mai (eds.), E-COMMERCE UND WIRTSCHAFTSPOLITIK 189 (2001), available as pdf-file at www.uni-frankfurt.de/fb01/teubner
31. Consumer Policy Strategy 2002-2006, COM(2002) 208 final, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/
32. See http://www.cbs.dk/departments/law/staff/ol/commission_on_ecl/
33. See http://www.sgecc.net/
34. See http://www.secola.org; see also the contributions to the Leuven Conference of Secola in November 2001, to be published in Grundmann/Stuyck (eds.), AN ACADEMIC GREEN PAPER ON EUROPEAN CONTRACT LAW, forthcoming July 2002, with Kluwer.