European Property Rights and Wrongs - Diana Wallis MEP

Current EU law that effects land law
B2C Transactions
The European Union has been active in the field of private law for several decades
already. Although the rules that have been adopted mostly concern the
law of contract, also property law is effected by some of these. After all, the
acquisition of land is also a legal transaction that starts with the conclusion of a
contract. The rationale behind EU contract law legislation has not been to create
a full European contract law, although there is a project currently underway that
may change this, but to address situations of inequality between parties. Most of
the EU contract law rules therefore apply to a business to consumer setting (B2C)
where there is an unequal bargaining position that can be remedied by providing
the consumer with additional information (pre-contractual) or empower him to
withdraw from the transaction (post-contractual). In business to business settings
(B2B), there has not been much regulation.
The Directive on Misleading Advertising applies to immovables and forces the
seller to provide (additional) information to the buyer. 21 The same applies to the
newly proposed Directive on Mortgage Credit, which forces the service provider
to provide information. 22 The timeshare directive, both in its old and new version,
and the package travel Directive (that applies to leases of land) do the same. 23
The Directive on doorstep selling does not directly apply to land, but following
the case law of the CJEU there are serious indications that in some situations
21 Directive 97/55/EC of European Parliament and of the Council of 6 October 1997
amending Directive 84/450/EEC concerning misleading advertising so as to include
comparative advertising.
22 Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on credit
agreements relating to residential property (Text with EEA relevance) SEC(2011) 355
final, SEC(2011) 356 final, SEC(2011) 357 final.
23 Directive 94/47/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 1994
on the protection of of purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts relating
to the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a timeshare basis, and
Directive 2008/122/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 January
2009 on protection of consumers in respect of certain aspects of timeshare, long-term
holiday products, resale and exchange.
38
A European Land Law?