The New European Law of Unfair Commercial Practices and Competition Law

Since 2005 the law of unfair commercial practices has undergone a revolution. This book presents the first comprehensive and critical examination of Directives 2005/29/EC concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices and 2006/114/EC concerning misleading and comparative advertising. The book offers the first detailed analysis of the various ways in which the two Directives have been transposed in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, with a particular focus on incorrect transposition. The analysis includes an overview of the enforcement possibilities before national courts and authorities, and as such will be a valuable source for all practitioners, policy makers and academics working in the field of unfair trade law.

Ultimately the aim of the book is to expound a sound interpretation of the relationship between unfair trade law and competition law in Europe, and it therefore engages in an original examination of these two cornerstones of European economic law. The author argues that unfair trade law and competition law should be understood as 'living apart together' - complementary but autonomous and sometimes even conflicting.

“[This book] fills a void in the literature as it is a rare combination of meticulously thorough analysis of the EU Directives and their implementation in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and a critical academic study of the interaction between the EU unfair commercial practices law and the EU competition law.

...this study is of great value to competition lawyers (academics and practitioners), as it provides a critical and comprehensive analysis of the current framework of EU unfair trade law and an original perspective on its interaction with EU competition law.” —World Competition Law and Economics Review

“This is a well-written and well-structured book with an extensive and completely up-to-date catalogue of bibliographical sources. Its major contribution to the existing academic literature lies not so much in its systematic and accurate analysis of the UCPD, but rather in the elaboration of its legislative implementation in five particular Member States and the proposed amendments of its currently applicable provisions.

...the book will surely prove very useful to both academics and practitioners interested in the current state of the law in the area of unfair commercial practices and its practical application at national level.” —Common Market Law Review, Volume 49, 4