ABSTRACT
A dichotomy between national legal frameworks and transnational markets poses many challenges with respect to consumer protection in EU law, including conflict of laws and cross-border enforcement issues. While the Rome and Brussels I bis Regulations determine applicable law and jurisdiction for private law mechanisms for the enforcement of consumer law, it is not entirely clear to what extent these rules are applicable to collective (private or public) mechanisms of consumer protection. Since the choice of remedies for the enforcement of consumer law remains within the discretion of Member States to a large extent, the national approaches to this issue vary from state to state. While in some Member States breaches of consumer protection are sanctioned by criminal penalties or injunctions under administrative law, they are subjected to civil law remedies in others. Some countries, such as Slovenia and Croatia, combine these two approaches. This chapter deals with the question of to what extent the existing rules of private international law are applicable to collective redress and public law sanctions. In this regard, the chapter focuses on cross-border cases of online disputes regarding the unfairness of contracts terms.
