EU consumer law is an area that has gone down its own, independent path for several
decades.It has its own approach, separate institutions and autonomous principles.
Several of its basic ‘values’ were not previously present in the legal systems of
the Member States, or, if they did exist, they did so in divergent form. Nowadays
there seems to be wide acceptance of EU consumer law among academics, especially in
continental Europe. Furthermore, there is strong support for the principles of such
legislation: its central purpose as well as the methods it uses to protect the ‘vulnerable’
consumer. Because of its recognition, concerns are rarely raised regarding the existing
material – not even by UK scholars, whose old contract law approach would make it
understandable to raise issues. Certainly, a large part of the European academic community
is aware that the premises used to build the current system were based on shaky foundations.
Questions like ‘Is this set of sources really followed in practice?’, ‘shouldn’t we
protect the consumer in a different way?’ or ‘Is the consumer truly vulnerable at
all?’ are rarely asked. The purpose of the article is to ask these questions and highlight
some alternative answers to them.