JJUS00014U EU Consumer Digital Protection - NOTE: THE COURSE IS CANCELLED IN SUMMER 2018

Volume 2017/2018
Content

Catalin Gabriel Stanescu is an international scholar and a Romanian attorney with more than 14 years of practice in commercial and civil law. He holds a PhD in Consumer Finance and authored several papers focusing on debt collection, consumer law, consumer ADR, digital consumer protection, unfair business terms and banking regulation. He is also the recipient of a Marie Curie Fellowship set to start in 2019, with a project that will analyze in depth unfair debt collection practices at EU level and their impact on consumer-debtors.

 

The course aims to provide a practical overview of Consumer Digital Protection. Given the expansion of digital services and products, the course is relevant for all students who wish to seek a career as practicing lawyers or in‐house counsels in law firms or companies active on the EU internal market and abroad, but also for those who will undertake positions in public agencies, policy making departments of governmental institutions or
NGOs across the EU.


It analyzes the most relevant areas of concern regarding protection of consumers in the digital space:
‐ electronic commerce and distance selling,
‐ digital currency and financial protection,
‐ protection of private data of consumers
‐ cloud computing and the use of virtual assistants
‐ the use of digital space in consumer related matters
‐ electronic ADR of consumer disputes in light of their impact on the effectiveness of consumer protection in cross border or internet based transactions.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:
 

Given the expansion of digital services and products, the course is relevant for all students who wish to seek a career as practicing lawyers or in‐house counsels in law firms or companies active on the EU internal market and abroad, but also for those who will undertake positions in public agencies, policy making departments of governmental institutions or NGOs across the EU. In this manner, the course contributes in making the master degree more valuable in a practically recognizable way for the people recruiting candidates from the Faculty of Law.

The course familiarizes students not only with the understanding of black letter law but also with the policy rationale behind this particular field. Thus, it is focused both on theoretical and practical issues, as well as possible solutions, as they appear from legislation and relevant case law.

In terms of knowledge, students will be able to:

  • describe and explain concepts as defined by law and developed by case law
  • explain various policy considerations
  • gain knowledge of legal, ethical and moral issues concerning various topics

 

Skills:
As a result students will develop the ability to:

  • understand general rules and principles of consumer digital protection law and to apply them in national and cross‐border scenarios
  • identify and understand the different levels of consumer digital protection in the EU, and the effect of such discrepancies on national and transnational commerce
  • analyze the policy rationales underlying the different regulatory choices and to argue on their strengths and weaknesses

 

Competences:
At the end of the course, students will have acquired a number of competences which will enable them to:

  • identify potential dangers for consumers in the digital space and possible remedies for aggrieved consumers in real life scenarios
  • individually and/or jointly plan, work and handle complex cases, carry out jurisprudential analysis and prepare competent legal advice on practical issues or hypotethicals
  • critically reflect on current and future developments in the field of digital protection in both a European and international context.

 

The course combines interactive lectures, including one by a practitioner guest speaker, with individual and group discussions as as well as exercises consisting in case ‐ analysis, case‐solving and legal drafting. At the same time, students will have the occasion to visit the Danish Consumer Ombudsman.

Selected chapters of the following books:

‐ Jan Trzaskowski, Andrej Savin, Bjorn Lundqvist and Patrik Lindskoug –Introduction to EU Internet Law, Ex Tuto Publishing, 2015.

‐ Reiner Schulze, Hans Schulte‐Nolke and Jackie Jones ‐ A Casebook on European Consumer Law, Hart Publishing, 2002

‐ Alexander Belohlavek –B2C Arbitration. Consumer Protection in Arbitration, Juris, 2012

‐ Hans Micklitz, Jules Stuyck and Evelyn Terryn –Cases, Materials and Text on Consumer Law, Hart Publishing, 2010,

‐ John Spanogle, Ralph Rohner, Dee Pridgen, Jeff Sovern, Christopher Peterson –Consumer Law. Cases and Materials, West, 4th Edition, 2013.

Minimal research skills are needed to complete some of the assignments and the written exam assignment
The course takes the format of lectures and active class participation. Hence, whenever
possible, the participation of the students is expected, encouraged and appreciated. A
large part of the course consists of practical exercises where students will be asked
to analyze legal decisions, draft and prepare legal memos, consumer complaints or
defenses, and present their findings to their peers.

The teaching and learning methods will thus include:
‐ lectures,
‐ group or individual assignments
‐ case studies and hypotheticals
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Preparation
  • 178,25
  • Seminar
  • 28
  • Total
  • 206,25
Oral
Individual
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

The course aims to make use of multiple types of feedback in order to ensure, on the one hand, the constant communication between teacher and students, and, on the other hand, that students understand what is expected of them and monitor the outcome of their work througout the course.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 min.
Oral exam with preparation, 20 minutes
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period

Week 30, 2018

Re-exam

Week 33, 2018