Ius poenitendi e tutela del consumatore nei contratti per la prestazione di servizi conclusi a distanza e fuori dei locali commerciali

The research has highlighted the significance and the complexity of the questions linked to the consumer right of withdrawal from distance and off-premises contracts for services: a) such significance is revealed by the spread of service contracts in today’s consumer market and the related growing interest of European institutions for the right of withdrawal as an instrument to offer consumers an adequate protection against ‘aggressive’ practices; b) the complexity lies in the deficient provisions of the consumer code implementing directives 85/577/EEC and 97/7/EC, which compel the lawyer to arduously coordinate the rules derived from the European legal order and those of the domestic legal system. In this context, the central questions dealt with by the researcher concern: 1. Problems of classification of the right of withdrawal within the systematics of the law of obligations. 2. Analysis of the conditions for the exercise of the right of withdrawal in off-premises and distance contracts. 3) Analysis of the contents of the consumer obligations flowing from the exercise of the right of withdrawal. 4) Critical analysis of the provisions of the recent directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights with regard to the scope, the conditions and the economic and legal consequences of the exercise of the right of withdrawal in distance and off-premises “contracts for services”. In light of the European origin of the investigated topic, the research has been conducted in Italy as well as abroad, i.e. in Germany, with the aim of deepening the knowledge of the BGB provisions on the consumer right of withdrawal and the interpretative problems which have been most debated in German literature.