| 英文摘要 |
The concept of‘consumer’should be assessed by reference to a person’s status in relation to a particular legal transaction, irrespective of the subject matter of the contract. The EU directives define‘consumer’based on the functional criterion of‘activities outside his trade, business, craft, or profession.’This is because consumers have accumulated less trading experience outside the categories and are less likely to repeatedly engage in similar behaviors. Therefore, consumers indeed have a disparity in the quality and quantity of information, as well as bargaining power, compared to business operators. In recent years, the CJEU, from cases like Dietzinger, Costea, to the significant impact Tarcău case, has recognized that a guarantor, who acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft, or profession, qualifies as a‘consumer’. The grant of a credit facility is indeed the provision of a service, thus guarantors should be considered financial consumers. The inadequate aspects of financial consumer protection laws should be amended, and the guarantor should be considered a‘consumer’under the current Consumer Protection Law. |
