The regulatory character of European private law

The paper outlines the regulatory character of European private law. It points to the various vertical (sectoral) and horizontal (consumer law) areas in which European private law is elaborated and the way it is functionalised to specific policy goals (creating the internal market, promoting competition, protecting consumers). Analytically it sketches out the different notions of autonomy, regulation and competition that underpin the EU's regulatory private law compared to national private law and points to the sources of mutation at national and EU level