About the EuCML
EU Consumer Law is an essential and fast moving area of law. The last few decades have seen consumer law elevated to being a central pillar of European Union policy making, with the EU setting a high level of protection for consumers in all industries and markets as the default. It has led to the adoption of many pieces of legislation all requiring intricate technical knowledge. In addition, the Fourth industrial revolution and recent digital developments has again opened the floodgate for new regulatory initiatives tackling critical issues such as sustainability, global electronic commerce and the liability of digital market actors. Meanwhile, the common European rules regulating different areas of consumer law, such as the unfair commercial practices, unfair contract terms, consumer sales or dispute resolution continue to evolve and remain of utmost importance for both online and offline transactions and market interactions. The harmonisation of consumer laws has in principle raised the level of protection of consumers in the internal market as businesses offers goods, services and digital content across borders within and outside of the European Union. However, the application of consumer law is as difficult as it has always been, prompting the need for yet further reforms.
The Journal of European Consumer and Market Law (EuCML) offers an up-to-date and critical analysis of all new developments and revisits old ones to pre-empt market needs and suggest viable solutions. EuCML offers a fresh perspective on consumer law that goes beyond the traditional understanding of consumer law as consumer protection law. It understands consumer protection from a market perspective, taking into account the requirements and realities of doing business in B2B and B2C markets. Consumer law analyses from a market order and market integration perspective, offering a range of views. The journal welcomes analysis that encompasses work aimed at protecting consumer stricto sensu but also as users of services, passengers, insurance policy holders and so on and so forth. EuCML offers a forum to discuss the black letter law implications of the latest CJEU interpretation but also sustainability concerns, the effects of the pandemic of Covid-19, data commercialisation, issues of power in markets or even social aspects. The journal is focussed on bringing scholarship and the sharpest thinking on the issues that matter to the consumer of the 21st century.
The journal was founded in 2012 and has become a must read in the field, attracting top authors and reaching a wide readership in the EU and beyond. EuCML is edited by a team of distinguished editors from leading academic institutions from all over Europe. The journal also benefits from a stellar advisory board with specialisation in a range of topic ensuring qualitative oversight on the activities of the journal. The journal contains double blind peer-reviewed articles of highest quality as well as shorter contributions on current topics or court cases in the section ‘comment & analysis’. In the ‘country reports’ section, experts provide an overview of current topics from the perspective of different EU Member States (e.g. implementation of directives or cross-cutting issues such as different regulatory approaches of Member States to new business models) enabling the reader to get a sense of the technical difficulties existing on the ground regarding legislative implementation or policy making.
EuCML is not only a necessary read for academics in the field but also provides relevant information for practitioners in law firms, policy makers, judges, traders, consumer organisations and administrative authorities. At EuCML, we realise that a journal is only as good as its readership and this is why EuCML is also more than a journal. It is a community of legal scholars, practitioners and policy makers that work on European consumer law. EuCML offers a common platform for analysis and debate. It serves as a platform for debate of the latest policy and legislative developments. If you are engaged in shaping modern consumer law, be it by working on cases or consumer policy, this is the right platform for you, not only to read, but also to contribute yourself. The editors invite submissions to eucml@beck.de.
EuCML is available in print but also via beck-online and Kluwer Law International.
Enjoy reading EuCML!
EuCML Award for the Best Paper on
European Consumer and Market Law
The goal of this Award is to recognize outstanding contributions to European Consumer and Market Law.
To be considered for the Award, Applicants should submit, by 30 May 2025, their Papers of up to 10,000 words (complying with further EuCML Submission Guidelines, available here), to the address eucmlaward@gmail.com.
All Papers tackling recent and pressing issues in European Consumer and Market Law will be considered.
In particular, we refer to five Macroareas:
1. Product Liability
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Data Trade, Data Protection and Platform economy
4. Digital Fairness Fitness Check
5. Circular economy and Sustainability of Global Supply Chains, Production and Consumption
Gien the wide-spread interest in this Award, and to encourage the development of innovative ideas on European Consumer and Market Law, the EuCML will offer a platform for the presentation and discussion of the best five submitted Papers.
For this purpose, the EuCML Editors will – after double-blind peer review of the submitted Papers – select five Papers to be presented and discussed at the in-person EuCML Annual Conference to take place at the University of Ferrara on 19 September 2025.
Each of the selected Papers will be assigned to two Discussants, leading Scholars in the field of European Consumer and Market Law.
All Discussants will constitute the Jury awarding the EuCML Award to one of the Papers.
The Papers presented at the conference will be published in the Special Issue 6/2025 of EuCML – with the winning Paper receiving a Special Mention.
Papers not selected for the Conference on 19 September 2025 will, provided they successfully pass the double-blind peer review process, also be considered for publication in other issues of EuCML upon Authors’ interest.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
The EuCML Editors
Prof. Dr. Alberto De Franceschi, University of Ferrara / KU Leuven
Prof. Dr. Mateja Durovic, King’s College London / European Court of Human Rights
Prof. Dr. Catalina Goanta, Utrecht University
Prof. Dr. Emilia Mišćenić, University of Rijeka
Prof. Dr. Mateusz Grochowski, Tulane University
Prof. Dr. Joasia Luzak, University of Exeter
Prof. Dr. Jorge Morais Carvalho, Nova University of Lisbon
Dr. Kristin Nemeth, University of Innsbruck
Prof. Dr. Christine Riefa, University of Reading
Prof. Dr. Evelyne Terryn, KU Leuven