Ограничение свободы договора в целях защиты прав потребителей в российском и европейском праве

Работа выполнена в Институте зарубежного и международного частного права им. Макса Планка в Гамбурге (Max-Planck-Institut fur auslandisches und internationales Privatrecht) в рамках стипендиальной программы Фонда им. Александра фон Гумбольдта (Bundeskanzler-Stipendium der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung). Предлагаемый вниманию читателя текст публиковался ранее (Вестник гражданского права. 2013. N 1. С. 5 – 51) и воспроизводится здесь с незначительными редакционными изменениями и приложением.

Ширвиндт Андрей Михайлович – кандидат юридических наук, магистр частного права, LL.M., ассистент кафедры гражданского права юридического факультета МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова, консультант Исследовательского центра частного права им. С.С. Алексеева при Президенте РФ. Специалист по римскому и гражданскому праву.

Restriction of the freedom of contract as a means of consumer protection under the EU and russian private law Consumer protection is one of the main concerns of the European legislator throughout the last decades. Consumer law constitutes the most abundant, fast-expanding and fast-evolving body of rules within the European private law. Speaking about the European contract law one means primarily the European consumer contract law. This area of law is thus understandably among the core subjects of the common European legal discussion, of the (re-)emerging common European legal science. Under this circumstances it is particularly attractive to compare the Russian consumer contract law with its European counterpart taking into account the genuine European character of the Russian private law on the one hand and its independence of the common European legislation on the other.
A particular legal system seeking to protect consumers can make use of many different tools. However, the preponderant part of the relevant private law instruments form those that restrict the freedom of contract in one way or another. The subject matter of this book are manifold instruments of the later type as used in different areas of the consumer contract law by the European and the Russian law. The analysis is focused on the right of withdrawal, mandatory law and information obligations as the main means to protect consumers against the dangers of doorstep selling, distance contracts and standard contract terms as well as against the specific risks of consumer credit, sale of goods, timeshare and package travel contracts. The relevant form requirements and international private law rules are also taken into account. The comparison resulted in identifying differences between the EU and Russian law concerning the level of consumer protection, the particular features of the tools applied and the subject areas of contract law where consumers are considered to deserve a special treatment.
The book provides a scheme for further detailed analysis of consumer contract law in comparative perspective.
The Appendix contains relevant abstracts of all the European regulations and directives discussed in the book translated into Russian.

Key words: consumer, b2c, freedom of contract, EU private law, right of withdrawal, mandatory law, information obligations, doorstep selling, distance contracts, consumer credit, timeshare contracts, sale of consumer goods, package travel contracts (package tours), standard contract terms, private international law.