This book investigates the regime of consumer benchmarks in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and explores to what extent this regime meets each of the goals of the Directive. In particular, it assesses whether the consumer benchmarks are suitable in terms of achieving the three goals of the Directive: achieving a high level of consumer protection, increasing the smooth functioning of the internal market, and improving competition in the market as such. In addition to providing a thorough analysis of the consumer benchmarks and their relationship to the goals of the Directive, at a more practical level, the book provides insight into the working and consequences of the benchmarks that can be used in the evaluation of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and its application by the CJEU. This assessment is important because the Directive, while promising to regulate unfair commercial practices in a way that achieves the Directive¿s goals, has removed the possibility for Member States to regulate unfair commercial practices themselves.

Acknowledgements.- Table of cases.- 1 Introduction.- Part I: European Law.- 2 The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.- 3 Case law of the CJEU.- 4 Thematic analysis.- Part II: National Law.- 5 German law.- 6 English law .- 7 Italian law.- 8 Comparison.- PART III: Consumer Behaviour.- 9 The average consumer benchmark from a behavioural perspective.- 10 The protection of vulnerable groups from a behavioural perspective.- Part IV: Assessment.- 11 Assessment.- Epilogue: Recommendations.- 12 Epilogue: recommendations.- 13 Summary.- Abbreviations.- Index.