Abstract
I will discuss the protection of small businesses (SMEs) along the lines of consumer protection, i.e. the protection of the weaker business party against the stronger business partner. I will limit my essay to Union law initiatives and in particular my questioning of the necessity of such protection will only relate to this level. Obviously that question is linked to the internal market. At the EU level the protection of small (and medium sized) businesses is rather new. As will be seen hereafter, this protection is taking shape in the form of an extension of existing consumer protection measures to SMEs and sometimes to all businesses. The adoption of further consumer protection type of measures for small businesses is on the agenda of the Commission in at least two respects: unfair commercial practices and unfair contract terms, although the proposals made or contemplated in both area’s amount to try to remedy the same phenomenon: the imbalance in bargaining power between large and small businesses. In this essay I will briefly look at these new instruments in the light of the only objective that could justify them: the approximation of the laws of the Member States which have as their object the establishment and functioning of the internal market (Article 114 TFEU).
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Notes
- 1.
H-W Micklitz, ‘Unfair Contract Terms—Public Interest Litigation before European Courts—C-415/11’ in E Terryn, G Straetmans and V Colaert (eds), Landmark Cases of EU Consumer Law (Antwerp, Intersentia, 2013) 615.
- 2.
H-W Micklitz, ‘Brauchen Konsumenten und Unternehmen eine neue Architektur des Verbraucherrechts?’, Gutachten A zum 69. Juristentag (Munich, CH Beck, 2012).
- 3.
Dir 86/653/EEC on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to self-employed commercial agents [1986] OJ L 382/17. One could also mention the Late Payments Directive (Dir 2011/7/EU); however its aim is not specifically to protect SMEs but creditors in cross-border commercial transactions.
- 4.
Dir 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market [2006] OJ L 376/36.
- 5.
§ 20 GWB.
- 6.
COM(2011) 635 final.
- 7.
Art 7(2), see further in the text.
- 8.
COM(2012) 702 final.
- 9.
COM(2013) 37 final.
- 10.
[1993] OJ L 95/29.
- 11.
On the German law on standard terms see P Ulmer, E Brandner and H Hensen, AGB-Recht, 11th ed (Cologne, Otto Schmidt, 2011).
- 12.
[2005] OJ L 149/22.
- 13.
[1984] OJ L 250/17.
- 14.
[1997] OJ L 290/23.
- 15.
[2006] OJ L 376/21.
- 16.
COM(2012) 702 final.
- 17.
See COM(2013) 37 final.
- 18.
2013/2122(INI).
- 19.
See point 7 of the Resolution.
- 20.
COM(2013) 37 final.
- 21.
See the Commission’s Enforcement Priorities in Applying Article 82 of the EC Treaty [2009] OJ C 45/7.
- 22.
European Parliament, IP/A/IMCO/NT/2010-18, May 2011.
- 23.
Case C-380/03 Germany v Parliament and Council [2006] ECR I-11573.
- 24.
See Case C-304/08 Plus Warenhandelsgesellschaft [2010] ECR I-217; Case C-504/08 Mediaprint [2010] ECR I-10909.
- 25.
cf. Case C-380/03 Germany v Parliament and Council.
- 26.
See forcefully M Hesselink, ‘SMEs in European Contract Law’ in K Boele-Woelkie and W Grosheide (eds), The Future of European Contract Law. Essays in honour of Ewoud Hondius (Alphen aan den Rijn, Kluwer, 2007) 359.
- 27.
See recently CJEU, judgment of 26 April 2012, Case C-472/10 Invitel, not yet reported, with references to former case law.
- 28.
See J Stuyck, ‘Consumer Protection and Fair Competition—One Fight?’ in L Thévenoz and N Reich (eds), Droit de la consommation—Konsumentenrecht—Consumer Law. Liber Amicorum Bernd Stauder (Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2006) 497.
- 29.
Case 120/78 Rewe-Zentral v Bundesmonopolverwaltung für Branntwein [1979] ECR 649.
References
Hesselink, M, ‘SMEs in European Contract Law’ in K Boele-Woelkie and W Grosheide (eds), The Future of European Contract Law. Essays in honour of Ewoud Hondius (Alphen aan den Rijn, Kluwer, 2007) 359.
Micklitz, H-W, ‘Brauchen Konsumenten und Unternehmen eine neue Architektur des Verbraucherrechts?’, Gutachten A zum 69. Juristentag (Munich, CH Beck, 2012).
Micklitz, H-W, ‘Unfair Contract Terms—Public Interest Litigation before European Courts—C-415/11’ in E Terryn, Straetmans, G and Colaert, V (eds), Landmark Cases of EU Consumer Law (Antwerp, Intersentia, 2013) 615.
Stuyck, J, ‘Consumer Protection and Fair Competition—One Fight?’ in L Thévenoz and N Reich (eds), Droit de la consommation—Konsumentenrecht—Consumer Law. Liber Amicorum Bernd Stauder (Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2006) 497.
Ulmer, P, Brandner, E, and Hensen, H, AGB-Recht, 11th ed (Cologne, Otto Schmidt, 2011).
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Stuyck, J. (2014). Do We Need ‘Consumer Protection’ for Small Businesses at the EU Level?. In: Purnhagen, K., Rott, P. (eds) Varieties of European Economic Law and Regulation. Studies in European Economic Law and Regulation, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04903-8_17
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