Consumer Welfare in Financial Services: A View from EU Competition Law

• Authors: Robertson Viktoria H.S.E.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

The paper analyses to what extent financial consumer protection forms part of the competition law objective of consumer welfare that EU competition law nowadays adheres to. It argues that while EU consumer law more generally aims at protecting the final consumer, EU financial consumer protection instruments often protect a broader spectrum of customers. This wider notion of the consumer can also be found in EU competition law, where the consumer is usually likened to any customer. A notable difference between EU financial consumer protection and EU competition law, however, is that they place a different emphasis on structural goals and inherently individual components. In EU competition law, the structural protection of competition is thought to eventually protect consumers. By uniting individual and structural aspects of consumer welfare, as well as by combining reactive and proactive consumer protection, EU competition law and EU financial consumer protection law can together achieve a financial protection of consumers that naturally goes beyond what each area of the law could achieve alone. A stringent approach, however, would require the development of a comprehensive EU financial consumer law which includes both dimensions.

FR

L’article analyse dans quelle mesure la protection financière des consommateurs fait partie de l’objectif du bien-être des consommateurs en matière de droit de la concurrence, auquel le droit européen de la concurrence adhère actuellement. Il soutient que le droit de la consommation de l’UE vise généralement à protéger le consommateur final, mais les instruments de protection financière des consommateurs de l’UE protègent souvent un plus large éventail de clients. Cette notion plus large du consommateur se retrouve également dans le droit européen de la concurrence, où le consommateur est généralement assimilé à un client. Une différence notable entre la protection financière des consommateurs de l’UE et le droit de la concurrence de l’UE est l’accord d’une importance différente aux objectifs structurels et aux composantes intrinsèquement individuelles. Dans le droit de la concurrence de l’UE, la protection structurelle de la concurrence est considérée de protéger éventuellement des consommateurs. En unissant les aspects individuels et structurels du bien-être des consommateurs et en combinant une protection réactive et proactive des consommateurs, le droit de la concurrence de l’UE et le droit de la protection financière des consommateurs de l’UE peuvent ensemble assurer le niveau de la protection financière des consommateurs allant au-delà de ce que chaque domaine juridique pourrait atteindre toute seule. Une approche stricte nécessiterait toutefois l’élaboration de droit européenne de la consommation dans le secteur financière complète, qui engloberait les deux dimensions

Keywords

EN

banking markets; capital markets; consumer protection; consumer welfare; EU competition law; financial markets; financial services; insurance markets; welfare standard

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Zarządzania
• Journal: Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 11(17)
• Pages: 29-52

Dates

published

2018-08-30

Contributors

author

Robertson Viktoria H.S.E.

• , Institute of Corporate and International Commercial Law, University of Graz

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Identifiers

DOI

10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2018.11.17.2