Twigg-Flesner, Christian; Schulze, Reiner --- "Protecting Rational Choice: Information and the Right of Withdrawal" [2010] ELECD 171; in Howells, Geraint; Ramsay, Iain; Wihelmsson, Thomas; Kraft, David (eds), "Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law

Editor(s): Howells, Geraint; Ramsay, Iain; Wihelmsson, Thomas; Kraft, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201287

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Protecting Rational Choice: Information and the Right of Withdrawal

Author(s): Twigg-Flesner, Christian; Schulze, Reiner

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

6. Protecting rational choice: information and
the right of withdrawal
Christian Twigg-Flesner and Reiner Schulze*



1. Introduction
Modern-day consumers seeking to find goods or services which suit their
needs are faced with an ever-increasing choice of products and suppliers.
Moreover, products are becoming increasingly complex, the terms on which
they are supplied vary from supplier to supplier, and it can be very difficult for
a consumer to choose the `right' product. At the same time, suppliers are using
a variety of different methods to market their products to consumers. What
was once the paradigm consumer transaction ­ a purchase in a specialist High
Street store after having compared different goods or services on offer ­ is
slowly becoming atypical: consumers can now buy products at their doorstep,
at a distance, via the internet and from another country. With so much choice,
it will not come as a surprise to hear that consumers may feel overwhelmed,
and may take purchasing decisions which do not best suit their needs. A major
problem consumers face is that they are not sufficiently well informed about
the goods or services on offer, and may decide to buy something which subse-
quently turns out to be unsuitable for them.
In order to respond to these developments, consumer law and policy have
developed two regulatory responses: the first is to regulate the provision of
information to consumers, particularly at the pre-transactional (that is, the pre-
contractual) stage. Within the European Union (EU), this has been ...