LA TUTELA DEL CONSUMATORE NELLA FORMAZIONE DEL CONSENSO.

EC law has introduced special rules into Italian legal system to preserve the integrity of consumer consent in C2B contracts. Over the time, the need to grant consumer centrality, in relation to choices, in the competitive community market, has led to an extension of his protection in the formation of consent phase. Changes concern both defects and remedies. Along with traditional defects provided for by the civil code (i.e. incapacity, mistake, duress, and fraudolent misrepresentation), new rules have introduced protections to safeguard the weak contracting party’s carefulness, freedom and information. New duties to inform are placed on businesses in contracts negotiated away from business premises; distance selling, distance selling of financial services, and timeshare contracts; contracts for the purchase of package holidays; consumer credit, and electricity and gas supply contracts, as well as in the labelling of non-food products, and in the sale of dangerous products. New consent defects may be found in contracts concluded by the consumer in pending suits of violations to antitrust regulations. New bans on deceptive or aggressive commercial practices impose businesses to behave according to general principles of fair dealing and good faith from the very pre-contractual phase. The European contract law draftings confirm the extension of protections warranting the integrity of consent. In order to establish the nature and scope of the possible protection remedies, a coordination with the civil code rules applying to invalid contracts was needed. Last, the most effective remedies to ensure consumers a real protection of the integrity of their choices were explored with reference to the competitive market context, i.e. the relevant scenario of the contracts under examination.