Samenvatting

In many areas of private law, mandatory substantive law protects consumers. In this contribution, I will argue that awarding consumer rights without properly regulating the consumer’s access to the court system renders these rights unenforceable through the ordinary courts. Several obstacles to the proper enforcement of consumer rights by individuals are identified, ranging from consumers’ lack of knowledge of their rights to the formalities of proceedings, the use of complex jargon and the costs involved in court procedures. It is argued that these obstacles produce such disincentives for consumers to maintain their rights that the result is that they do so in an insufficient manner, which leads to under-enforcement of consumer law.