Model ochrony konsumentów w Unii Europejskiej
Model of consumer protection in the European Union

Summary/Abstract: Before the Maastricht Treaty the standpoint on the consumers interests based on the idea that free market and consumer sovereignty sufficiently realized consumers needs and desires. In that period the EU focused on the completion of the internal market by the end of 1992. The assumption was that the construction of internal market was a form of consumer policy in itself and that sufficiently informed consumers could help themselves. Therefore it was not needed to conduct independently of other EU policies. In practice the market turned out to be failure, because consumer interests were not seen by the aspects of consumer choice but by consumer rights. Thus the state law had to support consumers as weaker market participants. The first initiatives in EU relied on soft law. The effective and separate consumer policy of the European Union started in 1993 on the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty. The main purpose of this article is to present the above mentioned aspects of consumer policy and to describe key components of consumer protection model in the European Union.

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