The scientific article examines the peculiarities of the legal regulation of consumer relations in the European Union. Relevant relations are the subject of regulation in many of its legal acts, however, the acquis communautaire does not contain a single approach to protecting the rights and interests of consumers in certain areas. This, in particular, is because the consumer relations sphere is not homogeneous and consumers need different degrees of protection. The acquis communautaire in the regulation of consumer relations uses the concepts of “consumer” and “average consumer”, which are different from each other, and therefore lead to different legal regulations. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that the domestic legislation, operating with the concept of “consumer”, does not include the category “average consumer”.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the acquis communautaire for the use of the “average consumer” category, highlight the legal nature of this category, and make a proposal for its proper implementation in the legislation of Ukraine.

The author examines the history of the formation of the standard of the average consumer, which was formed in the judicial practice of the European Union. Thus, it is indicated that, in general, the average consumer should be considered a consumer who is reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, taking into account linguistic, cultural and social factors. In addition, the process of standardizing the “average consumer” in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC) is analyzed, since this act was the first to establish such a definition. At the same time, it is indicated that because of the requirement of full harmonization of this Directive, the standard of the average consumer should be properly implemented in domestic legislation.

As a conclusion, the author points out that the lack of an objective possibility of applying the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the standard of the average consumer does not allow the proper use of this construction without corresponding legislative changes. Therefore, the author proposes to provide a legal definition of the “average consumer” category, which will contain both the development of the legislative acts of the European Union and the precedent practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union. In addition, the examples of Great Britain and Poland, as countries whose legislation contains definitions of the average consumer, are given.

Bibliography

Edited books

1. Interinstitutional style guide (Publications Office of the European Union, 2022) <https:// data.europa.eu/doi/10.2830/215072> (accessed: 29.03.2023) (in English).

Journal articles

2. Waddington L, ‘Reflections on the Protection of “Vulnerable” Consumers Under EU Law’ (2013) 2 Maastricht Faculty of Law Working Paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.2532904 (in English).

3. Klimas T, Vaiciukaite J, ‘The Law of Recitals in European Community Legislation’ (2008) 15 ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law (in English).

4. Poncibò C, Incardona R, ‘The Average Consumer, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and the Cognitive Revolution’ [2007] 30 (1) Journal of Consumer Policy Issue 21–38 (in English).

5. Szilágyi D, ‘Vulnerable Consumers and Financial Services in the European Union: The Position of the EU Court of Justice’ [2020] 5 (1) Public Goods & Governance 30–36. DOI: 10.21868/PGnG.2020.1.3 (in English).

6. Wilhelmsson T, ‘Harmonizing Unfair Commercial Practices Law: The Cultural and Social Dimensions’ (2006) 44.3 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 461–500 (in English).

Theses

7. Duivenvoorde B, ‘The consumer benchmarks in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’ (PhD thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam 2014) (in English).