Regulatory Strategies on Services Contracts in EC Law

Abstract

The idea is to show how and by what means the European Community is attempting to realise its overall policy to establish and accomplish the Internal Market for services, and more particularly how this policy which is meant to open up markets affects the contractual relations between the supplier and the customer, whether the latter be a professional or a consumer. The European Community relies, as usual, on a piecemeal approach. Regulation of services is very much following different patterns in different areas of the economic sector. I have chosen a particularly European perspective, as the European Community has become by far the most important regulator. The paper is first and foremost meant to systemize the existing regulatory strategies applied in the field of services. As such, this paper is just a first step to provide the groundwork for ongoing research.