Funding for a workshop "Protecting Weaker Businesses in Contract Law"

The Universities of Oldenburg and Groningen haveapproved funding for a workshop on "Protecting Weaker Businesses in Contract Law" at the proposal of Benedikt Schmitz (Univ. Groningen) and Peter Rott.The workshop will be organised by Benedikt Schmitz and will take place on 18 March 2026 in Groningen.

Newly published: Consumer law handbook

Nomos Verlag has published the fourth edition of the Consumer Law Handbook, founded by Klaus Tonner and Marina Tamm in 2011, with the new team of editors Klaus Tonner, Tobias Brönneke, Felix Buchmann and Peter Rott.

New project on debt collection law

Peter Rott has been awarded the contract for an expert report for the vbzv on the legal and legal policy analysis of modern debt collection activities. In particular, it will deal with debt collection costs and so-called group debt collection.

Office newly filled

We are pleased to welcome Judith Jacobs as secretary at our department!

Conference on consumer protection in the rental of movable property

On 11/12 September, the department organised a conference on consumer protection in the rental of movable property in Oldenburg. This would strengthen consumer confidence in lessors, e.g. of vehicles, e-scooters, tools, etc., but hardly exists in the EU member states. Selected conference papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of European Consumer and Market Law (EuCML) in 2026.

German-Italian exchange programme at Villa Vigoni

From 5 to 9 May, twenty German and Italian academics met at the beautiful Villa Vigoni on Lake Como to discuss the topic of collective redress in consumer law. Peter Rott had organised the stay together with Veronica Montani (Univ. Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan).

New expert opinion on practical aspects of the new redress action

Peter Rott, Axel Halfmeier (Leuphana Univ. Lüneburg), Wannes Vandenbussche (Univ. Gent), Laura Bugatti (Univ. Brescia) and Jagna Mucha (Univ. Warsaw) have prepared a comparative law study for the European Consumer Organisation BEUC on practical aspects of the new consumer redress mechanism. These include, in particular, the burden of proof, the financing of lawsuits and the collective assertion of non-material damages. The results will be presented to stakeholders at a workshop on 26 March 2025.

Country report on litigation funding in Germany

The European Commission has published the study Mapping Third Party Litigation Funding in the European Union, to which Peter Rott contributed the German country report. The background to this was an initiative by the European Parliament, which suspected major problems in this area. This assumption could not be confirmed for Germany.

Dissertation published

Madalena Lindenthal Schmidt's dissertation entitled "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine" has been published by Nomos Verlag in the VIEW publication series.

Successful doctorate

On 24 October 2024, Madalena Lindenthal-Schmidt defended her dissertation entitled "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine - An Investigation of Contractual Medical Liability with Restriction to the Area of Medical Malpractice" with an outstanding performance. Congratulations from the department!

Villa Vigoni

Together with Veronica Montani (Univ, Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano) and Laura Bugatti (Univ. Brescia), Peter Rott has submitted a successful proposal for a seminar lasting several days at Villa Vigoni on Lake Como. The seminar is funded by the DFG. In May 2025, academics from Italy and Germany will hold intensive discussions on the possibilities of collective consumer protection.

Conference on consumer protection in debt collection in Tallinn

On 19 September, a conference on consumer protection in debt collection was held in Tallinn, sponsored by the Baltic-German University Office. The problems and the existing or missing legal solutions in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Germany were analysed. Country reports on these four EU Member States will be published in the Journal of European Consumer and Market Law (EuCML).

New project on practical aspects of the new redress mechanism

The European Consumer Organisation BEUC has commissioned Peter Rott, Axel Halfmeier (Leuphana Univ. Lüneburg), Wannes Vandenbussche (Univ. Ghent), Laura Bugatti (Univ. Brescia) and Jagna Mucha (Univ. Warsaw) to conduct a comparative law study on a number of issues that may affect the usability of the new redress mechanism for consumer organisations. These include, in particular, the burden of proof, the financing of lawsuits and the collective assertion of non-material damages.

Dr Edgar Rose retires

Our long-standing colleague Dr Edgar Rose retired at the end of June. He worked at the department for 27 years, during which time he rendered outstanding services to students by teaching and supervising countless theses.
We would like to thank you sincerely for this and for your good collegiality and wish you a good start to the new phase of your life.
Fortunately, the transition will be a smooth one, as Edgar Rose will remain with the department as a lecturer.

New project on consumer protection in debt collection

Together with Karin Sein (University of Tallinn), Peter Rott has acquired funding for a project on consumer protection in debt collection from the Baltic University Office. In September 2024, academics and practitioners from the three Baltic states and Germany will initially exchange experiences and discuss a suitable legal framework and its implementation in practice at a workshop in Tallinn.

Special issue on the implementation of the Directive on representative actions

In May, a special issue of the Revue européenne de droit de la consommation (REDC) was published, edited by Peter Rott and Jeroen de Ceuster (Univ. Ghent). Contributions were published on the international workshop "Implementation of the Representative Actions Directive", which the department organised in June 2023 with the support of the publisher Larcier.

Successful doctorate

In May, Jacob Schwartz, LL.M., successfully completed his doctoral project on "Non-contractual liability for self-driving vehicles" at the Chair of Civil Law, Commercial and Business Law and Information Law.

Expert opinion Digital Fairness for Consumers

Together with his colleagues Hans Micklitz (EUI Florence), Natali Helberger, Laurens Naudts, Marijn Sax (Univ. Amsterdam), Betül Kas (Univ. Rotterdam), Monika Namyslowska (Univ. Lodz) and Michale Veale (University College London), Peter Rott has prepared an expert opinion for the European Consumer Organisation BEUC on the topic of Digital Fairness for Consumers. Peter Rott focussed in particular on questions of the burden of proof and the standard of proof. The report is available here .

Expert opinion on consumer protection for legal tech services

Peter Rott has prepared an expert opinion on consumer protection for legal tech services for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.V.). In it, he proposes a regulation that is separate from the Legal Services Act and covers not only legal tech debt collection, but also debt purchase and brokerage services, but also does not limit permissible activities to debt collection services. In addition, consumer information and price controls are in need of improvement; for example, new communication obligations should be introduced during the execution of the order and after completion of the activity, for which English law provides models.

You can find the report here.

Special issue on climate lawsuits

In December, a special issue of the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance on climate change litigation and related topics was published, edited by Peter Rott and Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi (Univ. Groningen). Among other things, contributions were published on the International Workshop on Climate Lawsuits, which the department organised in March 2022 with funding from the University of Oldenburg's co-operation project funding programme with the University of Groningen.

Jacob Schwartz will join the judicial service in the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court district on 1 November 2023

Dear Jacob, we congratulate you warmly, wish you much joy in your new job and hope that you will return to us as a lecturer at some point.

International workshop on the implementation of the Directive on representative actions in the Member States

On 15/16 June 2023, an international workshop on the implementation of the Directive on representative actions in the Member States took place in the Senate Meeting Room of the University of Oldenburg with participants from Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Italy and Germany. The workshop was sponsored by the publisher Larcier, contributions will be published in 2024 in their journal Revue européenne de droit de la consommation / European Journal of Consumer Law (REDC / EJCL). The conference programme can be found here.

Expert opinion on consumer protection by BaFin

Peter Rott has prepared an expert opinion for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) on the topic of "BaFin - Interlocking between civil law and official consumer protection". The report assumes that BaFin's legal enforcement can fill gaps in the prosecution of legal violations by banks and insurance companies and thus represent a valuable addition to the activities of consumer organisations. In order to strengthen BaFin, it is proposed, among other things, that both the requirements for BaFin's action and its powers be formulated more clearly in order to create legal certainty, that BaFin be granted the power to take action, that actions against BaFin decisions on consumer protection under civil law be assigned to the civil courts and that cooperation between BaFin and consumer organisations, in particular the vzbv, be improved. You can find the report at https://www.vzbv.de/meldungen/vzbv-mehr-kompetenzen-fuer-die-bafin-beim-verbraucherschutz.

Brief study on the restriction of manipulative and consumption-enhancing designs in online shopping

As part of the project "CO:DINA - Transformation Roadmap Digitalisation and Sustainability" of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Peter Rott has prepared a short study on problems and options for action to restrict manipulative and consumption-enhancing designs in online shopping. This can be found here, along with parallel studies by Christoph Busch and Otmar Lell.

The department welcomes Soraya Hammou as a new research associate.

ELI webinar on digital fairness

The European Law Institute is organising a webinar to discuss the European Law Institute's response to the European Commission's consultation on Digital Fairness. Together with Karin Sein (University of Tartu) and Marie Jull Sørensen (Aalborg University), Peter Rott drafted this opinion. Information on the webinar and registration can be found here: https://europeanlawinstitute.eu/news-events/upcoming-events/events-sync/news/webinar-on-eli-response-to-the-european-commissions-public-consultation-on-digital-fairness-fitne/

International workshop on citizen participation in the energy transition

On 23/24 March 2023, an international workshop on the energy transition with a focus on citizen participation took place in the Senate Meeting Room of the University of Oldenburg with participants mainly from Oldenburg and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. The workshop, organised by Peter Rott together with Björn Hoops (Groningen), was funded by the Vice President for Studies, Teaching and International Affairs and the University of Turin. The conference programme can be found here.

Statement of the European Law Institute on the consultation on digital fairness

Together with Karin Sein (University of Tartu) and Marie Jull Sørensen (University of Aalborg), Peter Rott drafted the European Law Institute's response to the EU Commission's consultation on Digital Fairness. You can find the statement here.

Study on personalised prices

Peter Rott and Joanna Strycharz (University of Amsterdam) conducted a study for the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection on the topic of "Personalised Pricing". The personalisation of prices raises concerns due to possible unfair treatment or even discrimination of consumers. The study identifies gaps in the legal regulation at EU level and makes proposals for regulating personalised prices.

Reorganisation of the specialist area

On 1 November, the previous representative of the department, Prof Dr Peter Rott, was appointed Professor of Civil Law, Commercial and Business Law and Information Law.

At the same time, Madalena Lindenthal-Schmidt, LL.M. took up her position as a research assistant.

Successful doctorate

In July, Dr Thomas Janicki, LL.M., successfully completed his doctoral project at the Chair of Civil Law, Commercial and Business Law and Legal Informatics on the topic of "Data protection obligations for the establishment of an internal data protection management system".

The dissertation can be purchased via the following link: shop.ruw.de/startseite/5086-datenschutzrechtliche-pflichten-zur-einrichtung-eines-unternehmensinternen-datenschutz-managementsystems-.html

International workshop on climate lawsuits

On 24/25 March 2022, an international workshop on climate lawsuits took place in the Senate Meeting Room of the University of Oldenburg with participants mainly from Oldenburg and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. The workshop, which was funded by the Vice President for Studies, Teaching and International Affairs, focussed on current case law and ongoing court proceedings from Germany and the Netherlands as well as fundamental questions of climate governance and the role of the courts. The contributions are to be published in the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance. The conference programme can be found here.

Publication of the study "The Regulatory Gap: Consumer Protection in the Digital Economy"

In December 2021, the European Consumer Organisation BEUC published the study "The Regulatory Gap: Consumer Protection in the Digital Economy " by Hans Natali Helberger (Univ. Amsterdam), Hans Micklitz (European University Institute, Florence, and Univ. Helsinki) and Peter Rott. You can find the study here.

Publication of a study on credit scoring for property loans

The Federal Government has published the final report of the research project "Evaluation of developments in the area of creditworthiness checks for property consumer loan agreements" commissioned by the BMJV and conducted by the Institute for Financial Services (iff). The legal part of the study was written by Prof Dr Petra Buck-Heeb (Hanover), Prof Dr Claire Feldhusen (Rostock) and Prof Dr Peter Rott (Oldenburg). The study and the BMJV report can be found here.

Publication of the study "EU Consumer Protection 2.0"

In March 2021, the European Consumer Organisation BEUC published the study "EU Consumer Protection 2.0 - Structural Asymmetries in Digital Markets". Peter Rott is co-author of Part II, "Personalised pricing and personalised commercial practices" (with Hans Micklitz and Orla Lynskey), and Part III, "Online platforms, special responsibilities and the universal service regime" (with Orla Lynskey).