ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some measures regulating special forms of selling where the consumer may easily be confronted with unacceptable pressure, lack of choice etc. The EC legislation concerns doorstep selling and distant selling. Trade practices, like direct marketing, are affected by data protection legislation as well. There is no general legislation on various kinds of trade practices in the EC law. Therefore, in some countries opinions have been expressed according to which doorstep selling as such, at least when it takes places without prior warning or agreement, should be considered an unfair trade practice. Doorstep selling, by which is meant selling at the consumer's home or some other comparable places, is problematic from a consumer point of view in several respects. In order to make the right of cancellation more effective the Directive obliges the traders to give consumers written notice of their right of cancellation.
