The course aims to deepen the understanding of the legal rules that govern consumer law in the italian legal system, characterized by the variety of sources of law. In the first part of the course, the general concepts of consumer law will be explored (the notion of the market, the social market economy, the consumer and the professional, unfair termsm, grey and black lists, unfair commercial practices and the sale of consumer goods). Through the analysis of the rules, practical cases, and decisions of the Antitrust Authority, the main tools for consumer protection will be reconstructed. A part of the course will take place in seminar form and will be dedicated to deepening the protection of the consumer/financial and banking customer. Finally, with the aim of training students on the regulatory innovations that today tend to make markets aware of environmental and social problems, the issue of the energy consumer will be studied in depth, and, in particular, energy communities will be analysed. In summary, the goal is to provide the tools suitable for developing, on the one hand, the ability to re-elaborate the principles and rules being studied and, on the other, the ability to apply this knowledge to concrete cases.
Course program
- The Italian-European sources of consumer law.
- Introductory notions: concept of market, competition, consumer, professional.
- Jurisprudential evolution of the concept of consumer.
- The fundamental rights of consumers.
- Unfair terms (grey list and black list): consumer protection.
- B2B contracting: regulation of subcontracting.
- Nullity of protection.
- Unfair and deceptive commercial practices.
- The regulation of the sale of consumer goods (the problem of planned obsolescence).
- The financial and banking consumer: safeguards.
- The energy consumer.
- Energy communities (CEC and CER)
