Postgraduate Module Descriptor

LAWM089: Consumer Protection

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The module aims to provide a critical understanding of the goals and instruments of consumer law, the emergence (and the tensions) of this ‘Europeanised’ regime, an overview of the realignment initiatives in this area and a deeper understanding of the enforcement issues (public and private as well as resort to ADR and ODR). The module aims to enable students to understand, assess and critically address the issues at stake in this area.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. demonstrate deep, systematic and critical understanding of the role, aims and underlying principles of Consumer law; 2. demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the goals and instruments of Consumer law; 3. identify, explain, assess and analyse issues arising in the areas of Consumer law and identify and apply relevant legal rules and theories to those issues.
Discipline-Specific Skills	4. demonstrate a high level of ability in selecting, integrating and presenting, coherently and reflectively, relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments; 5. demonstrate a high level of ability in integrating and assessing information from a wide variety of primary and secondary legal sources, using this to produce reasoned arguments and analysis in relation to legal issues.
Personal and Key Skills	6. demonstrate effective, confident and autonomous ability to manage relevant learning resources/ information/ learning strategies, and develop your own reasoned arguments and opinions; and 7. communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately, in a manner appropriate to the discipline and context.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

introduction to the issues of consumer protection in context (relation contract-consumer law; competition – consumer law; the role of consumer behaviour; harmonisation of consumer law; consumer notions; concept of mixed contracts; average and vulnerable consumers);
issues revolving around the consumer contract’s conclusion; discussion of consumer protection against unfair commercial practices;
issues of consumer protection in conclusion of contracts with regard to adhesion contracts, standard terms and conditions; examination of the concept of unfairness of contract terms, as well as the consequences of such unfairness;
regulation with regard to the conclusion of specific, popular consumer contracts, such as contracts of sale and contracts pertaining to travel; information rights, right of withdrawal, non-conformity and individual remedies; air passenger rights; package travel;
consumer protection when the deal goes wrong; regulations with regard to product safety and liability as well as with regard to enforcement of consumer rights;
impact of the digitalisation of the market on consumer protection;
issues related to promoting sustainable consumption through consumer protection measures.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
30	270	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	15	10 x 1.5 hour lectures
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	15	10 x 1.5 hour seminars
Guided independent study	150	Preparation for seminars
Guided independent study	120	Preparation of formative and summative assessments

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

See in particular the Web pages of the EU Commission on: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/index_en.htm

Case law of the European Court of Justice available at: http://curia.eu

Other Learning Resources

Westlaw, Lexis, Eurlex