Consumer rights as human rights

The purpose of this article is not to discuss consumer rights from the point of view of consumer relations, which is generally based on contract and tort law, drawing also from mandatory rules found in public law. There are numerous books that already cover this angle of consumer law very successfully.' Rather, the purpose of this article is to determine whether or not the language of human rights can, or indeed should, be used to describe the ambit of consumer relations. This perspective is probably of little interest to consumer lawyers because they perceive the existing legal framework, with all its faults and deficiencies, as a sound basis to remedy the asymmetry in the relationship between consumer and supplier. So, can a human rights angle provide any tangible added value? Given that this matter has received very little attention in the recent past it is probably best if one adopts a cautious outlook. To be sure, however, human rights has a role to play in relationships where the two opposing actors possess very wide ranging levels of power; this is after all the very essence of human rights