A Half-built House? The New Consumer Sales Directive Assessed as Contract Law

Abstract

The new Consumer Sales Directive (2019/771 EU) is a total harmonisation directive intended to make cross-border sales more attractive to sellers by ensuring that the level of consumer‑protection rules differs less among Member States. The legislation process resulted, however, in several exceptions to this approach of total harmonisation. These exceptions, coupled with the fact that the directive does not regulate the consumer’s obligations under the sales contract, means that sellers must still be prepared to grapple with considerable differences in the level of consumer protection when offering their goods to consumers in other countries than their own. The Europeanisation of contract law seems to remain a contentious arena.