Consumer Law and Environmental Protection: Consumer Sales Directive 2019/771 Example

Abstract

This paper reviews principal coherence of EU Consumer law and environmental protection as demonstrated through analysis of Consumer Sales Directive. After dichotomy between EU consumer and environmental protection, and EU primary law’s obligation to coordinate these areas is assessed, rules of directive which reflect (or conversely – neglect) environmental protection goal are analysed. It is later argued that directive basically ignores Union’s quest towards sustainability. Although singular rules from directive may indeed be changed hoping it would help to fight ecological problems, taking consumer law’s role in solving ecological challenges seriously means more than fine-tuning several provisions but changing consumer law fundaments’ instead.