Choice of law, Consumer Contracts and Law of Consumer

A recent trawl of some questions posed by the European Parliament to the Commission revealed this interesting question and answer about the applicability and scope of the law of the state of the consumer in cross border transactions.

Look at Written Question E-1751/07 by Georgios Papastamkos. He asks basically what the Commission has done to render the law of the domicile of the consumer applicable in cross border transactions instead of the law of the domicile of the vendor, especially in internet sales, and whether the imposition of such a mandatory law complies with the principle of freedom of contract.

You can find the Commission's response here. It refers in particular to the "Rome I" proposal that is wonderfully chronicled by our friends over at the excellent Conflict of Laws Blog.