The gullible consumer in eu food law

Huizing Edinger

pp. 135-140

in: Helena Röcklinsberg, Per Sandin (eds), The ethics of consumption, Wageningen, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2013

Abstract

EU consumers are free to choose how they live their lives and what they eat. This right of consumer autonomy can be seen as the passive counterpart of the market access rights that are at the very heart of European integration (Micklitz et al., 2009: 48). Although the free movement of goods essentially addresses the "active market participant" (Micklitz et al., 2009: 9), its effective functioning depends to a large extent on whether consumers actively engage in cross-border trade. Therefore, the internal market concept simultaneously presupposes that consumers have access and are at liberty to choose between what is at offer.