Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments 2005 erstellt
Beschreibung:
When public services move from a state monopoly model to a market-like structure, the citizens who use those services find themselves between an old role as passive recipient of state largesse and a new role as active consumer in the marketplace. This suggests that there may be an increasing need for consumer protection legislation aimed at this new group of consumers. If so, there is a strong argument that the logical body to develop such legislation, within the EU, is the European Community. Such a development would involve the Community in national welfare policies. Firstly, it would provide it with access to the loyalty of individuals, and so to national political power. That could then be used as a tool to advance support and acceptance of other, perhaps more constitutional, Community aims. Secondly, consumer legislation may be influential in restructuring welfare states, and nudging them towards a European model.This article concentrates on the process by which consumer legislation in this area might come into being, and the mechanism by which it might exert its influence on the structure of services. It aims to sketch certain key features which may determine the way the law and its role unfold. First of these is the question of when welfare services become subject to market law; competition and free movement. This, it is argued, is also the point at which consumers of these services may be said to come into being, and competence to protect them is generated in Community law. Following this, the relationship between the form of transactions and their content is briefly considered, to show how consumer regulation may also influence the product