La protección del consumidor transfronterizo intracomunitario en el comercio electrónico

Abstract

One of the immediate consequences of the Internal Market and the freedoms of movement of people, goods and services, is the increase in consumer relations between suppliers and consumers from different European Union Member States, which have developed even more, as a result of the introduction of the Euro as a single currency and the advances in the information society and e-commerce. E-commerce has experimented a remarkable increase in recent years, which, in turn, has contributed to a rise in the number of conflicts arising from intra-community consumer relations, when the consumer and entrepreneur are located in different EU States. Apart from the numerous advantages electronic procurement has for the market, it also poses particular problems concerning safeguarding the rights of consumers and users. The development of Community rules on consumer protection has taken place according to the dictates of the consecutive special consumer protection programs, which began with the preliminary programme of 1975, and continued appearing and advancing towards the effective protection of consumers' interests. However, at the present time, several questions arise, above all in respect of the efficiency of consumer protection means, as regards intra-community cross-border consumer situations, related, mainly, to e-commerce, which is what leads us to focus the object of this investigation on a thorough analysis of the Community rules and case-law, as well as the extensive scientific doctrine that exists on the matter. In this these we intend to make a critical approach to legistative framework on cross-border consumer protection in e-commerce, and how the new ADR/ODR procedures respond to the needs and real problems of these special consumers.