L'informazione al consumatore nella crisi dei servizi finanziari

A partire dagli anni Ottanta la legislazione dell'Unione europea ha progressivamente ampliato il campo delle norme che obbligano le banche e altri fornitori di servizi finanziari a dare una adeguata e comprensibile informazione ai consumatori circa i prodotti finanziari offerti. Il presente articolo ripercorre i momenti principali che hanno segnato questa evoluzione della legislazione dell'UE.

A trustful and sincere relation between customers and service-providers is a basic element of the market of financial services. Moreover, understandable information on financial products is another element enhancing mutual trust. However, in the past years the ghosts of abuse and mistrust have haunted the market of financial contracts within the European Union. Predatory lending practices and mis-selling of financial products both in the United States and in other Western leading countries have spread a long-lasting financial instability worldwide. Consumers are often not capable of understanding the complexity and risks of certain financial products, are poorly equipped to identify cases where they are deliberately mis-sold inappropriate financial products. The European Union has therefore massively intervened to monitor and control the behaviour of providers of financial services. The EU legislation has continuously entered the scope of contract law, which for a too long time had been under the domestic jur

isdiction and sovereign domain of EU countries. Fundamental principles of EU legislation in the field of financial services encompass a set of imperative rules of "public policy in the economy" (ordre public économique). This paper is in favour of doctrine standpoints considering that any clause of a financial B2C contract is void if it does not comply with binding rules of EU law.