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Breach of Information Duties in the B2C E-Commerce: a Comparative Analysis of English and Spanish Law

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Breach of Information Duties in the B2C E-Commerce: a Comparative Analysis of English and Spanish Law Breach of Information Duties in the B2C E-Commerce: A Comparative Analysis of English and Spanish Law Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Law at the University of M´alaga, Spain, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Zofia Bednarz Departamento de Derecho Privado Especial Area´ de Derecho Mercantil Supervised by Dr Juan Ignacio Peinado Gracia and Dra Patricia M´arquezLobillo June 2017 AUTOR: Zofia Bednarz http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6719-8101 EDITA: Publicaciones y Divulgación Científica. Universidad de Málaga Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial- SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Cualquier parte de esta obra se puede reproducir sin autorización pero con el reconocimiento y atribución de los autores. No se puede hacer uso comercial de la obra y no se puede alterar, transformar o hacer obras derivadas. Esta Tesis Doctoral está depositada en el Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga (RIUMA): riuma.uma.es Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Dr. Juan Ignacio Peinado Gracia and Dra. Patricia M´arquezLobillo, for the continuous support of my Ph.D study and related research, for their patience, motivation, and help in navigating through the difficult process. Besides my supervisors, I would like to thank the external reviewers of my dissertation: Dr. Raffaele Lener and Dr. Christian Twigg-Flesner, for their insightful comments, which contributed to improving the study presented here. My sincere thanks also goes to Dr. Paula Giliker, who provided me with an opportunity to make a research stay at the University of Bristol, without which this study would not have been possible. I would also like to express gratitude to Dr. John Brebner for provid- ing an invaluable insight into the world of common law at the University of M´alaga. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and my boyfriend for their endless support, patience and confidence in me. iv v Contents List of abbreviations 1 Resumen 2 Introduction 15 Background and Motivation . 15 Research Questions . 20 Methodology . 21 Outline of the Study . 26 1 Social, conceptual and legal framework of information duties and their breach in the B2C e-commerce 29 1.1 Information duties and their breach in the B2C e-commerce . 30 1.1.1 Particular aspects of the B2C e-commerce . 30 1.1.1.1 Characteristics of the e-commerce . 30 1.1.1.2 E-commerce law as a separate branch of law . 40 1.1.2 Pre-contractual information and its breach in the e-commerce 47 1.1.2.1 The role of pre-contractual information in the European consumer policy . 47 1.1.2.2 The model of consumer in the e-commerce law . 82 1.1.2.3 Issues relative to information duties in consumer con- tracts . 102 1.1.2.4 Finding a balance: optimal information duties in the B2C e-commerce . 114 1.2 Information requirements | the law applicable . 119 1.2.1 Constitutional foundations . 119 vi CONTENTS 1.2.2 General duty to disclose and its breach in national private law 125 1.2.2.1 Good faith, fair dealing and pre-contractual duties of disclosure . 125 1.2.2.2 General duty to disclose in national private law . 133 1.2.3 Relevant legislation establishing more specific information duties146 1.2.3.1 More general and indirect information duties . 146 1.2.3.2 Overview of concrete information requirements in B2C electronic contracts . 157 2 Information duties, their fulfilment and breach | general analysis166 2.1 Characteristics of the duty to inform and its breach . 166 2.1.1 Content and scope of the information duties . 166 2.1.2 Requirements relative to the way of providing information . 178 2.1.3 Types of breach of information duties . 187 2.1.3.1 Full and partial breach of information duties . 187 2.1.3.2 Possible classifications of breach of information duties 190 2.1.3.3 Breach of information duties depending on the rem- edies: information omission and provision of false or inaccurate information . 194 2.2 General remarks on remedies available . 197 2.2.1 Importance of the remedies for breach of information duties . 197 2.2.2 Major problematic issues related to the remedies for breach . 203 2.2.2.1 Dual nature of information duties and remedies for their breach . 203 2.2.2.2 Casuistic nature of information duties . 214 2.2.3 Types of remedies available . 216 2.2.3.1 Main remedies to be considered . 216 2.2.3.2 Nature of remedies: contractual, tortious or other? . 233 vii CONTENTS 3 Remedies for breach of information duties available to consumers in English and Spanish law 239 3.1 Specific remedies available to consumers . 239 3.1.1 Relevant legislation . 239 3.1.2 Specific remedies established in statutes . 253 3.1.2.1 Information duty breached relative to the main char- acteristics of goods . 253 3.1.2.2 Remedies for breach of other information duties . 268 3.2 General private law and remedies it offers . 271 3.2.1 Overview of the analysis of the general private law remedies . 271 3.2.2 Omission of the information that should have been provided . 287 3.2.2.1 Breach of an implied term and contractual liability . 289 3.2.2.2 Defects of consent where information was not provided292 3.2.3 Provision of incorrect information . 313 3.2.3.1 When misinformation amounts to breach of term and remedies resulting from contractual liability . 314 3.2.3.2 Consumer induced into the contract through mis- leading information: defects of consent . 325 3.3 Problem of adequacy of general remedies to particularities of B2C electronic contracts . 342 3.3.1 Problems resulting from application of general remedies . 342 3.3.2 Right of withdrawal as an example of a specific remedy . 352 Figures 1.{4. 357 Conclusions 366 Conclusiones 385 Judicial decisions 409 CJEU decisions . 409 viii CONTENTS English cases . 411 Spanish judicial decisions . 414 Legislation and other official documents 417 European Directives, Regulations and Treaties . 417 Other documents (European and international) . 420 National legislation . 423 Bibliography 426 Books . 426 Contributions to Collections . 431 Articles . 442 ix List of abbreviations art { article B2C { Business-to-Consumer CISG { United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods CJEU (previously ECJ) { The Court of Justice of the European Union CRA 2015 { The Consumer Rights Act 1015 DCFR { Draft Common Frame of Reference EU { European Union GDP { Gross domestic product LSSICE { Ley de Servicios de la Sociedad de la Informaci´ony de Comercio Electr´onico OECD { The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PECL { Principles of European Contract Law reg { regulation s { section SME { Small and medium-sized enterprise TRLDCU { Texto refundido de la Ley General para la Defensa de los Consumidores y Usuarios UNCITRAL { The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law UTR 2008 { Unfair Trading Regulations 1008 WTO { World Trade Organization 1 Resumen La celebraci´onde contratos por medios electr´onicosconstituye una realidad inneg- able en nuestro tiempo. Los empresarios se han visto abocados a realizar su actividad econ´omicaa trav´esde Internet, casi de forma obligada, a fin de satisfacer la creciente demanda de productos y servicios on line. Aunque nuestra Tesis Doctoral se centra en el examen de la normativa reguladora de los adquisici´onde productos, sin entrar en el ofrecimiento de servicios, tanto en un caso como en el otro se acusa que el mercado on line no ha adquirido el potencial pretendido por las Instituciones Comunitarias. Esto se debe, en gran medida, a la falta de confianza manifestada por los propios consumidores, y derivada, entre otros aspectos, de la falta de contacto directo con el sujeto con el que contratan; de la imposibilidad de comprobar f´ısicamente aquello que est´anadquiriendo; y del hecho de que buena parte de las transacciones llevadas a cabo en la Red tienen car´acter transfronterizo. El establecimiento de deberes precontractuales de informaci´on,en cuyo estudio se centra nuestra Tesis Doctoral, viene a suplir, de alguna forma la carencia apuntada en el p´arrafoprecedente, si bien, debemos dejar claro, desde el principio, que los mismos no deben ser el ´unicocauce para la protecci´onde los consumidores y para garantizar su confianza en el Mercado. Un sistema de deberes a cargo de los empresarios pierde todo su sentido si el mismo no viene acompa~nadodel establecimiento de los remedios adecuados para garantizar el cumplimiento de dichos deberes. Es cierto, en este sentido, que la imposici´onde sanciones por incumplimiento de los mencionados deberes y consagrada en las normas comunitarias sobre protecci´on de los consumidores, comercio electr´onicoy competencia leal, y, como no puede ser de otra forma, en las de transposici´on, satisface en gran medida el inter´esdel 2 Resumen Mercado Interior y garantizan el correcto funcionamiento del mismo. Ahora bien, la imposici´onde una sanci´onadministrativa a aquel empresario que, por ejemplo, omite informaci´ondetallada sobre sus datos personales, sobre las caracter´ısticasdel bien, o sobre elementos esenciales del contrato, no contribuye, de igual forma, a la satisfacci´onde los intereses individuales de los consumidores que, sobre la base de la informaci´onque ha facilitado el empresario, han celebrado un determinado contrato electr´onico. El consumidor, en general, y en especial el ciberconsumidor, necesita contar con remedios { mecanismos {means of redress { a los que acogerse para satisfacer sus intereses individuales. Nos enfrentamos, en este sentido a un problema digno de un estudio pormenoriz- ado.
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