This book investigates the regime of consumer benchmarks in the Unfair Commercial Practices
Directive and explores to what extent this regime meets each of the goals of the Directive. In
particular it assesses whether the consumer benchmarks are suitable in terms of achieving the
three goals of the Directive: achieving a high level of consumer protection increasing the
smooth functioning of the internal market and improving competition in the market as such. In
addition to providing a thorough analysis of the consumer benchmarks and their relationship to
the goals of the Directive at a more practical level the book provides insight into the
working and consequences of the benchmarks that can be used in the evaluation of the Unfair
Commercial Practices Directive and its application by the CJEU. This assessment is important
because the Directive while promising to regulate unfair commercial practices in a way that
achieves the Directive's goals has removed the possibility for Member States to regulate
unfair commercial practices themselves.
