Research
Research
The research focus of the department is on European private law and in particular European consumer law and its implications for national law. The spectrum ranges from traditional consumer law (general terms and conditions, doorstep selling, distance selling, sales) to the law of financial services and services of general interest (electricity, gas, etc.). In recent years, the focus has shifted to
- law enforcement (class actions, official legal protection, legal tech),
- the digitalisation of the economy (e-commerce, data protection, platform economy, dynamisation and personalisation of prices, dark patterns, legal tech, fintech),
- the civil law consideration of sustainability, climate protection (climate lawsuits) and the promotion of renewable energies
- the privatisation of monitoring through the involvement of certification organisations and
- the globalisation of supply chains
The department cooperates closely with the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, but also with universities in England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and other EU member states and with members of the International Association of Consumer Law. The department also publishes the journal Verbraucher und Recht, which is published by Nomos.
In March 2022, the department organised a comparative law workshop, primarily with colleagues from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, on climate lawsuits. A workshop on citizen participation in the energy transition took place in March 2023 and an international conference on the implementation of the Directive on representative actions in the EU Member States was organised in June 2023. In September 2024, Karin Sein (Univ. Tartu) organised a workshop on abusive debt collection practices in Tallinn, which was funded by the Baltic-German University Office at the proposal of Karin Sein and Peter Rott.
In May 2025, 20 German and Italian academics met at Villa Vigoni for a multi-day exchange on collective redress in consumer law. The seminar was organised by Peter Rott and Veronica Montani (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan).
In September 2025, the department organised an international workshop on the sharing economy with a focus on consumer protection in the rental of movable property.
Ongoing projects
Participation in a project on Contracts in the Platform Economy (Common Core of European Private Law)
Commentary on the new Consumer Credit Directive, with Karin Sein (Univ. Tartu)
Update of the commentary on the Injunctions Act for the Munich Commentary on the Code of Civil Procedure
Special issue of the Comparative Law Review on collective redress in consumer law in Germany and Italy
Special issue of EuCML on consumer protection in the rental of movable property
Expert opinion on debt collection costs (client: Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e. V.).V.)
Participation in the study "Representative Actions Directive Knowledge Hub" by Civic Consulting and British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) for the EU Commission
Completed projects
New edition of the Consumer Law Handbook (Nomos), with Klaus Tonner (formerly Univ. Rostock), Tobias Brönneke (HS Pforzheim) and Felix Buchmann (HS Pforzheim)
Country report Germany for the study "Mapping Third Party Litigation Funding in the European Union" for the European Commission, DG Justice and Consumers, organised by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and Civic Consulting, 2025
Expert opinion on practical aspects of the new redress action by consumer associations (client: BEUC), with Axel Halfmeier (Leuphana Univ. Lüneburg), Wannes Vandenbussche (Univ. Gent), Laura Bugatti (Univ. Brescia) and Jagna Mucha (Univ. Warsaw), 2025
Project on consumer protection in debt collection, with Karin Sein (Univ. Tartu), 2025
Special issue of the Revue européenne de droit de la consommation on the implementation of the Directive on representative actions in selected EU Member States, 2024
Expert opinion "AGB-Änderungsmechanismen" for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, with Claire Feldhusen (HAW Hamburg), 2024
Study "Delivering the Digital Fairness Act" (client: BEUC), with Hans Micklitz (European University Institute), Natali Helberger (University of Amsterdam) and Monika Namysłowska (University of Łódz), 2024
Special issue of the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance on climate lawsuits
Expert opinion "Verbraucherpolitischer Handlungsbedarf bei Legal Tech" for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations
Bundesverband e.V., 2023
Expert opinion "BaFin - Interlocking between civil law and official consumer protection" for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, 2023, Link: https://www.vzbv.de/meldungen/vzbv-mehr-kompetenzen-fuer-die-bafin-beim-verbraucherschutz.
Brief study on the restriction of manipulative and consumer-increasing 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, 2023; link available here.
Draft response of the European Law Institute (ELI) to the European Commission's consultation paper "Digital Fairness", with Marie Jull Sørensen (Univ. Aalborg) and Karin Sein (Univ. Tartu), 2023; link available here.
Personalised prices (commissioned by the European Parliament, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection), with Joanna Strycharz (Univ. Amsterdam), 2022; link available here.
Legal part of the study "Evaluierung der Entwicklungen im Bereich der Kreditwürdigkeitsprüfung bei Immobiliar-Verbraucherdarlehensverträgen", conducted by the Institute for Financial Services e.V. Hamburg (iff) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, 2021, with Petra Buck-Heeb (Univ. Hannover) and Claire Feldhusen (Univ. Rostock); link available here.
Legal part of the study on the preparation of the evaluation of the General Product Safety Directive by Civic Consulting for the European Commission, DG Growth, 2021; link available here.
Consumer Protection 2.0 (client: BEUC), 2020, with expert opinions on Personalised Pricing and Personalised Commerical Practices (with Orla Lynskey and Hans-W. Micklitz), A Universal Service Framework for Powerful Online Platforms (with Orla Lynskey) and The Regulatory Gap: Consumer Protection in the Digital Economy (with Natali Helberger and Hans-W. Micklitz)