ABSTRACT
However, recent legislative developments provide for a (potentially!) more considered, more general, and more structured approach to the regulation of standard form consumer contracts. It has been observed that a likely reason for the adoption (however misleadingly) of the title Unfair Contract Terms in the 1977 Act was that at the time the bill was first envisaged in 1976, the European Commission was considering harmonisation of laws within the EC concerning unfair contract terms. A number of factors made swift progress difficult, particularly the divergent nature of national contract laws. Moreover, a number of member states enacted legislation on the subject at around the same time, although dealing with it in a variety of ways.75 However, in 1986, the Commission launched a new initiative on consumer
