Iain Ramsay

Handbook of research on international consumer law

Contents: Preface 1. Consumer Law in its International Dimension Geraint Howells, Iain Ramsay and Thomas Wilhelmsson 2. Consumer Protection and Human Rights Iris Benohr and Hans-W. Micklitz 3. Development and Consumer Law Sothi Rachagan 4. The Consumer and Competition Law Angus MacCulloch 5. Misleading and Unfair Advertising James P. Nehf 6. Protecting Rational Choice: Information and the Right of Withdrawal Christian Twigg-Flesner and Reiner Schulze 7. Unfair Terms and Standard Form Contracts Thomas Wilhelmsson and Chris Willett 8. Sales and Guarantees Cynthia Hawes and Christian Twigg-Flesner 9. Products Liability Law in America and Europe Geraint Howells and David G. Owen 10. Product Safety Regulation Luke Nottage 11. Consumers and Services of General Interest Peter Rott and Chris Willett 12. Consumer Protection and the Internet Patrick Quirk and John A. Rothchild 13. Regulation of Consumer Credit Iain Ramsay 14. Personal Insolvency Johanna Niemi 15. Financial Services Regulation and the Investor as Consumer Dimity Kingsford Smith 16. Individual Consumer Redress Peter Spiller and Kate Tokeley 17. Using Class Actions to Enforce Consumer Protection Law Deborah R. Hensler 18. Enforcing Consumer Protection Laws Colin Scott Index

A Tale Of Two Debtors: Responding to the Shock of Over‐Indebtedness in France and England – A Story from the Trente Piteuses

England and France have developed distinct treatment systems to address the shock of a substantial increase in over-indebted individuals since the mid-1980s. In France, Over-Indebtedness Commissions, with the Bank of France playing a central role in their management, now dominate the system. A more fragmented system of private and public providers of remedies developed in England, with innovation driven by private actors modifying existing commercial procedures and increased access to bankruptcy relief a side-effect of government promotion of entrepreneurialism. This article explains the differences between these countries in terms of the influence of interest groups, including state actors, and ideologies. Historical contingency also plays a role. The distinct responses were not hard-wired to legal origins and the article argues that analysis of the interaction of interest groups, state actors and ideology in shaping institutions, which in turn structure future change, provides a productive approach for future comparative research in this area.

The Crash that Launched a Thousand Fixes: Regulation of Consumer Credit after the Lending Revolution and the Credit Crunch

The consumer lending “revolution” - with its promise of the democratisation of credit - has been followed by the credit crunch. The credit crunch has stimulated both immediate regulatory initiatives and more fundamental reflection on consumer credit regulation. As the Turner review in the UK notes, conventional regulatory assumptions - that reputable firms do not place risky products on the market, that innovation is stifled by regulation and that regulators are not as well placed as the market to judge the value of products - have been challenged by the credit crunch. This paper explores an influential neo-liberal approach to the fundamental problems of consumer credit regulation - availability and safety - that is promoted by the World Bank. We discuss the difficulties of achieving effective regulation that is fair and distributionally progressive within the private rights framework of the World Bank’s approach. We then turn to the role of public regulation of consumer credit markets. Neo-liberalism is often associated with a minimal role for the state but even within neoliberalism public regulation of consumer credit markets is necessary to achieve public confidence in credit markets and achieve fairness. Public regulation may take a variety of forms. In the US in response to the financial crisis the US government has proposed a “Consumer Financial Protection Agency” intended to ensure the safety of consumer credit through greater ex ante control of credit. A variation on this model already exists in the UK and we examine the emerging role of the UK Financial Services Authority in regulating sub-prime lending and payment protection insurance through its “Treating Customers Fairly” initiative.