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The Target Opportunity Costs of Successful Nudges Read chapter Read first chapter

2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

From Disclosure to Transparency in Consumer Law

Author : Rolf H. Weber

Published in: Consumer Law and Economics

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Paternalistic detail-oriented rule-making as well as mandated disclosure in favor of consumers have become subject to criticism. Behavioral sciences and economics show that too much regulation might not be beneficial. Furthermore, over-information and overconfidence are jeopardizing the consumer protection objectives. Therefore, this contribution attempts to develop an approach relying on the consumer as right-holder and on an appropriate transparency concept. Clear and comprehensive information should empower the consumers to take reflected decisions.

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previous chapter The PRIIPs Regulation in View of Behavioural Research: An Example of Hyperbolized Mandated Disclosure
next chapter No Need to Read: ‘Self-Enforcing’ Pre-Contractual Consumer Information in European and German Law
Footnotes
1
Shinar-Plato and Weber (2015), pp. 238 et seqq.
 
2
This problem was already 50 years ago addressed by Akerlof (1970).
 
3
See below Sect. 3.2.
 
4
For more details see Baisch and Weber (2015), pp. 171 et seqq.
 
5
Directive 2014/65/EU of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU, OJ L 173/349-496, 12 June 2014 (MiFID II).
 
6
Ben-Shahar and Schneider (2014), passim.
 
7
For a detailed discussion see below Sect. 3.2.
 
8
Baisch and Weber (2015), p. 160.
 
9
Baisch and Weber (2015), p. 162.
 
10
European Commission, A New Deal for Consumers, 11 April 2018.
 
11
Baisch and Weber (2015), p. 163.
 
12
For a further discussion of behavioral insights see Baisch (2016), pp. 225–230.
 
13
See Camerer et al. (2003).
 
14
See already Tversky and Kahneman (1973); later also Sunstein and Thaler (2003).
 
15
Sunstein and Thaler (2003).
 
16
Akerlof and Shiller (2010).
 
17
Langevoort (1992) and Avgouleas (2012), pp. 57–58.
 
18
Information requirements encompass the main characteristics of the goods or services, the identity of the trader, the total price of the goods or services, the arrangements for payment, delivery and performance, the product guarantee, the duration of the contract, the functionality of digital goods, etc.
 
19
For a description of this term see Weber (2013), pp. 6–7; for a discussion see below Sect. 4.2.
 
20
See also Baisch and Weber (2015), p. 161.
 
21
Ben-Shahar and Schneider (2014).
 
22
To this aspect see also Baisch and Weber (2015), p. 166 and below Sect. 4.1.
 
23
Regulation (EU) 1286/2014 of 26 November 2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs), OJ L 352/1-23, 9.12.2014.
 
24
See the contribution of Rainer Baisch in this Volume.
 
25
Ben-Shahar and Schneider (2011), p. 748.
 
26
Thaler and Sunstein (2008).
 
27
See also Baisch (2016), p. 223.
 
28
Weber (2002), p. 407.
 
29
Weber (1999), p. 66.
 
30
Shenk (1997).
 
31
Weber (2002), p. 407.
 
32
Rötzer (1998), pp. 83 et seqq.
 
33
Luhmann (1997), pp. 1090, 1097.
 
34
Luhmann (1997), pp. 1102 et seq.
 
35
Luhmann (1997), p. 1090.
 
36
Wolf (1983), p. 45.
 
37
Wolf (1983), p. 29.
 
38
Weber (2002), p. 407.
 
39
Weber (2002), p. 407.
 
40
Ben-Shahar and Schneider (2011), p. 647.
 
41
For further sources see Roetzel (2018).
 
42
Sunstein (2011), p. 1353; Baisch (2016), pp. 227–228.
 
43
Kahneman (2011), p. 218.
 
44
Camerer and Lovallo (2009), p. 306; see also Grubb (2015), p. 9.
 
45
Baisch and Weber (2015), p. 170.
 
46
Kahneman (2011), p. 255.
 
47
In this context, Kahneman (2011), pp. 85 et seqq., has introduced the so-called WYSIATI concept: “What You See Is All There Is”.
 
48
Grubb (2015), p. 10.
 
49
Grubb (2015), passim.
 
50
Weber (2013), p. 6.
 
51
Dworkin (1977).
 
52
Weber (2013), p. 24.
 
53
Weber (2013), p. 24.
 
54
Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2nd edn (1989).
 
55
For more details see Kaufmann and Weber (2010), p. 782.
 
56
Weber (2009), p. 122.
 
57
Kaufmann and Weber (2018), p. 523.
 
58
Weber (2009), pp. 122–123.
 
59
See above Sect. 4.1.
 
60
Weber (2002), pp. 406–407; Kaufmann and Weber (2010), p. 788; Kaufmann and Weber (2018), p. 520.
 
61
To the problem that the complexity exceeds the reasonably expectable capacities of the addresses of rules see Kaufmann and Weber (2010), p. 789.
 
62
Kaufmann and Weber (2018), p. 520.
 
63
Mitchell (1998), pp. 109–110.
 
64
Weber (2009), p. 131.
 
65
See also Kaufmann and Weber (2018), p. 519.
 
66
Kaufmann and Weber (2018), p. 519.
 
67
Hood (2006), pp. 17 and 20.
 
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Metadata
Title
From Disclosure to Transparency in Consumer Law
Author
Rolf H. Weber
Copyright Year
2021
Book
Consumer Law and Economics

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-49027-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-49028-7

Copyright Year: 2021

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49028-7_4