ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role economic theory plays on the way consumer vulnerability has traditionally been understood. A fairly trend has developed which seeks to identify a separate group of consumers that requires additional protection compared to that already afforded by consumer law. Ofgem views vulnerability as the combination of a consumer’s personal circumstances and characteristics, along with aspects of the market. Government, regulators and consumer organisations often draw attention to the savings which can be made by shopping around. By contrast, ‘consumer law developed on the premise that there was an imbalance between consumers and businesses and that it was primarily information asymmetries that caused this difference in bargaining powers’. Consumer law was conceived to protect the vulnerable in a business to consumer relationship, i.e. all consumers, by dint of their position, were deemed to be in a vulnerable position.
