Watson, Jonathon --- "Withdrawal rights" [2016] ELECD 1122; in Twigg-Flesner, Christian (ed), "Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 241

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law

Editor(s): Twigg-Flesner, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782547365

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Withdrawal rights

Author(s): Watson, Jonathon

Number of pages: 25

Abstract/Description:

Withdrawal rights are an especially powerful instrument in the consumer's legal toolbox. They allow the consumer to terminate the performance obligations under a binding contract and thus impact on its very roots. Such rights are generally exceptional in nature and are thus only available under exceptional circumstances. Nonetheless, developments in sales techniques and technologies have meant that this exceptional nature of withdrawal rights has been watered down and there are indications that their use is widespread. This chapter therefore begins with a brief overview of the justification and role of withdrawal rights in European consumer contract law. The main focus is on the most recent development in withdrawal rights in EU legislation, namely the Consumer Rights Directive (hereinafter also'CRD'), which, in respect of the contracts it covers has the widest-reaching (in terms of scope and frequency of use) withdrawal rights. The underlying objective of this chapter is to question the role of withdrawal rights and whether their recent development in distance and off-premises contracts can be seen as using a restrictive approach in substantive law as an attempt to dissuade rather than promote the exercise of withdrawal rights and thereby attempting to'reinstate' their status as an exceptional instrument of consumer protection.