Consumer Guarantees in the Future Consumer Credit Directive: Mandatory Ban on Consumer Protection?

Abstract

The proposed new Consumer Credit Directive will not only deal with credit contracts but also with surety agreements, including consumer guarantees. The latter will for the first time undergo harmonisation at EC level, and this will be in the form of total harmonisation. However, the Commission never undertook serious comparative analysis of the Member States? protection of consumer guarantors, and the proposal does not take account of the existing levels of protection. In contrast, the proposed protective instruments are incomplete and rather weak, and thus they would considerably reduce the protection of the guarantors in various Member States if the Directive disallowed more stringent national rules.