Antoni Mut Piña is a PhD candidate at the University of Barcelona. His research focuses mainly on the role of information in consumer contract law and its implications in the development of the figure of the vulnerable consumer. He will be presenting his paper, The Contractual Decoupling of the Vulnerable Consumer: Two Paradigms in the Protection of Vulnerability in Consumption.

Abstract

In recent years we have witnessed the proliferation of the use of the term vulnerability in Spanish legislation, especially because of the measures taken to alleviate the effects of the crisis associated with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic . However, prior to this, it was already possible to observe the incipient recourse by the legal system to this figure. Its incorporation into consumer contract law, to a certain extent, confirms the legislator's acceptance of the idea that the figure of the average consumer, understood as one who is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, is not sufficiently flexible to be used as a univocal criterion in the configuration of consumer protection policies. The aim of this paper is to delimit which dimensions of the term "vulnerability" are addressed from the perspective of consumer contract law. In order to do so, we must first delimit the normative framework that will serve as the object of our study.