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Abstract
Consumer over-indebtedness has been a problem in Europe especially since the 2008 financial crisis. Legal procedures addressing consumer insolvency were scarce and sporadic prior to 2008, however, legislation have accelerated in most Member States of the European Union in the past fifteen years. In lack of any harmonization in the area of consumer bankruptcy in the EU, Member States, while learning from each other in some instances, established their own procedures and regulatory frameworks. The paper attempts to map the various approaches in addressing consumer over-indebtedness looking for common cores to serve as a base for a future legislation in an EU level. The research follows a comparative method mostly relying on the analysis of the relevant norms in the Member States of the EU also wandering to the territory of the sociology of law. The paper concludes the consumer bankruptcy regimes in Europe can be categorized easily and show similarities mostly in the identification of the vulnerable groups and in the legal consequences of the procedures. This finding proves there is ground for the European Commission to propose legislation, preferably in the form of a directive of the Council and of the European Parliament, to ensure a harmonized approach in the field of consumer bankruptcy procedures.
Keywords: Consumer bankruptcy, consumer law, European Union law, insolvency.
Rezim Kebangkrutan Konsumen Di Eropa
Abstrak
Utang berlebih konsumen telah menjadi masalah di Eropa terutama sejak krisis keuangan 2008. Prosedur hukum yang menangani kebangkrutan konsumen langka dan sporadis sebelum tahun 2008, namun, undang-undang telah dipercepat di sebagian besar Negara Anggota Uni Eropa dalam lima belas tahun terakhir. Karena kurangnya harmonisasi di bidang kebangkrutan konsumen di UE, Negara-negara Anggota, sambil belajar dari satu sama lain dalam beberapa kasus, menetapkan prosedur dan kerangka peraturan mereka sendiri. Makalah ini mencoba untuk memetakan berbagai pendekatan dalam menangani konsumen yang terlilit hutang yang mencari inti umum untuk menjadi dasar undang-undang masa depan di tingkat UE. Penelitian mengikuti metode komparatif yang sebagian besar mengandalkan analisis norma-norma yang relevan di Negara-negara Anggota UE yang juga mengembara ke wilayah sosiologi hukum. Makalah ini menyimpulkan rezim kebangkrutan konsumen di Eropa dapat dikategorikan dengan mudah dan menunjukkan kesamaan sebagian besar dalam identifikasi kelompok rentan dan konsekuensi hukum dari prosedur tersebut. Temuan ini membuktikan adanya dasar bagi Komisi Eropa untuk mengusulkan undang-undang, sebaiknya dalam bentuk arahan dari Dewan dan Parlemen Eropa, untuk memastikan pendekatan yang harmonis di bidang prosedur kebangkrutan konsumen.
Kata kunci: Kebangkrutan konsumen, hukum konsumen, hukum Uni Eropa, kebangkrutan.
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References
Austria Insolvency Act 1994.
Belgium Collective Debt Resolution Act of 1999.
United Kingdom Insolvency Act 1986.
Finland Act on the Adjustment of the Debts of a Private Individual 1993.
Germany Insolvency Code of 5 October 1994.
Denmark Bankruptcy Act No. 444 of 28 August 1984.
Hungary Act CV of 2015 on the Debt Management of Natural Persons.
Sweden Bankruptcy Law 1994.
Council of the European Union, Report on legal solutions to debt problems in credit societies. (Strasbourg, 2019).
Dubois Hand Anderson R. “Managing household debts in the EU: An integrated approach to service provision and the interaction with legal arrangement” in Hans Dubois et.al., Consumer bankruptcy in Europe: Different paths for debtors and creditors (European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, 2011).
Csizmady A and Hegedüs J. “Hungarian Mortgage Rescue Programs 2009-2016” in Narodowy Bank Polski (ed.), The Narodowy Bank Polski Workshop: Recent trends in the real estate market and its analysis (Narodowy Bank Polski, 2016).
Ferretti F and Vandone D. Personal debt in Europe: the EU Financial Market and Consumer Insolvency (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Angel S and Heitzmann K. ‘Over-indebtedness in Europe: The relevance of country-level variables for the over-indebtedness of private households’ (2015) 25 Journal of European Social Policy 3.
Arpan RD. ‘A new perspective on insolvency: The procedure applicable to the debtor who is a natural person’ (2017) 1 The Juridical Current Journal 68.
Bigaj A. ’The evolution of the institution of the consumer insolvency in 2009-2016 – opportunities and risks’ (2015) 1 Academic Debuts of the Students of the WSB University 15.
Destatis (Statistisches Bundesamt). ‘Statistik zur Überschuldung privater personen 2018’ (2016) 15 Wiesbaden 5.
Surányi G. ‘Ten years after the crisis in Hungary’, (2018) S2 Acta Oeconomica 68.
Eurofound. Household debt advisory services in the European Union (Dublin, 2012).
______. ‘Managing household debts: Social service provisions in the EU’ (Workshop report, Dublin, 2010).
______. ‘Public services – Addressing household over-indebtedness’ (Workshop report, Dublin, 2020).
European Commission. ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers’ (2014) COM (2014) 259 Final.
European Commission. Towards a Common Operational European Definition of Over-indebtedness (Publications Office of the European Union, 2008).
European Consumer Debt Network. ‘Debt advice and over-indebtedness in Europe’ (Money Matters 2019).
References
Austria Insolvency Act 1994.
Belgium Collective Debt Resolution Act of 1999.
United Kingdom Insolvency Act 1986.
Finland Act on the Adjustment of the Debts of a Private Individual 1993.
Germany Insolvency Code of 5 October 1994.
Denmark Bankruptcy Act No. 444 of 28 August 1984.
Hungary Act CV of 2015 on the Debt Management of Natural Persons.
Sweden Bankruptcy Law 1994.
Council of the European Union, Report on legal solutions to debt problems in credit societies. (Strasbourg, 2019).
Dubois Hand Anderson R. “Managing household debts in the EU: An integrated approach to service provision and the interaction with legal arrangement” in Hans Dubois et.al., Consumer bankruptcy in Europe: Different paths for debtors and creditors (European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, 2011).
Csizmady A and Hegedüs J. “Hungarian Mortgage Rescue Programs 2009-2016” in Narodowy Bank Polski (ed.), The Narodowy Bank Polski Workshop: Recent trends in the real estate market and its analysis (Narodowy Bank Polski, 2016).
Ferretti F and Vandone D. Personal debt in Europe: the EU Financial Market and Consumer Insolvency (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Angel S and Heitzmann K. ‘Over-indebtedness in Europe: The relevance of country-level variables for the over-indebtedness of private households’ (2015) 25 Journal of European Social Policy 3.
Arpan RD. ‘A new perspective on insolvency: The procedure applicable to the debtor who is a natural person’ (2017) 1 The Juridical Current Journal 68.
Bigaj A. ’The evolution of the institution of the consumer insolvency in 2009-2016 – opportunities and risks’ (2015) 1 Academic Debuts of the Students of the WSB University 15.
Destatis (Statistisches Bundesamt). ‘Statistik zur Überschuldung privater personen 2018’ (2016) 15 Wiesbaden 5.
Surányi G. ‘Ten years after the crisis in Hungary’, (2018) S2 Acta Oeconomica 68.
Eurofound. Household debt advisory services in the European Union (Dublin, 2012).
______. ‘Managing household debts: Social service provisions in the EU’ (Workshop report, Dublin, 2010).
______. ‘Public services – Addressing household over-indebtedness’ (Workshop report, Dublin, 2020).
European Commission. ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers’ (2014) COM (2014) 259 Final.
European Commission. Towards a Common Operational European Definition of Over-indebtedness (Publications Office of the European Union, 2008).
European Consumer Debt Network. ‘Debt advice and over-indebtedness in Europe’ (Money Matters 2019).