Consumer Rights to support Europe’s Green and Digital Transitions. Towards Sustainable Consumer Law

Consumer law has been conceptualized starting from human interactions as highly formalized, frequent, never identity-generating; from relationships simply based on immediate outcomes, on the informed exchange between individuals being perfectly rational because perfectly selfish. The adaptation of consumer’s protection into the homo œconomicus myth is being critically reviewed in comparison with persons acting in the market as holders of complex interests. The ecological and digital transitions have resulted in new risks and challenges for individuals, companies, and society as a whole. This paper does not question the fundamental axioms of consumer rationality developed by economics. It focuses on the recent evolutions of European consumer law, with notable emphasis on reading the scope of protection and its remedial apparatus through the lens of sustainable development.