The dissertation is one of the first in the national science of civil law, after the adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Credit», a comprehensive study of theoretical and practical issues of civil law regulation of consumer credit, considering the obligations defined by the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
The dissertation is devoted to the study of peculiarities, theoretical and practical problems of civil law regulation of consumer lending, considering the provisions of civil law doctrine, civil legislation of Ukraine and other countries, as well as contractual banking practice of consumer lending.
The features of formation and development of legal regulation of consumer lending in EU and the USA were defined in the paper. The main purpose of consumer credit legislation was determined as well. A study of the provisions of EU directives, US special legislation, and legislation of EU member states that were adopted after the 2008 financial crisis, and scientific views of civil researchers was conducted. This allowed to determine the current trends of change and the prospects for the development of civil law regulation of consumer lending. It was proved that determination of the main directions to improve the efficiency of consumer credit regulation requires considering risks of excessive debt of population and the results of studies of behavioral economics.
Consumer credit agreements concluded before and after the 2008 financial crisis were analyzed, the main shortcomings of consumer credit regulation, typical violations of consumer rights in the practice of consumer lending for the two analyzed periods were identified. The peculiarities of the legal status of participants in the legal relations of consumer lending were defined: consumer, creditor and credit intermediary. Mistakenness to exclude partially pawnshops from the sphere of regulation of the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Crediting» was proved. The criteria were determined for delimiting the legal status of a «credit broker» from a «credit agent», which are grouped into one category of «credit intermediary» in the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Crediting».
The author defined the concepts of «creditworthiness» and «assessment of creditworthiness» of the consumer and proposed to make relevant changes to the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Crediting» in order to avoid disagreements in understanding and interpretation of these concepts in consumer lending practice.
The legal means of disclosure of information to the consumer about total amount payable by a consumer and annual percentage rate of charge, peculiarities of their application according to Ukrainian and EU legislation were determined. The problems of legal support for the enforcement of consumer rights to information about total amount payable by consumer were identified.
A definition, legal nature and characteristic features of the consumer credit agreement, and its place in the system of legal contracts were defined. The analysis of conditions that make up the contents of the consumer credit agreement were made, the problems of unfair terms of the contract were considered.
The necessity of fixing some provisions in Ukrainian legislation aimed at improving the mechanisms of realization of the rights of consumers of credit services, prevention of excessive debt, unfair consumer lending practices was disclosed.
Regarding the proper enforcement of the provisions of the EU Directive 2008/48/EC in the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Crediting», it was clarified that the main provisions of the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Crediting» do not comply with the requirements of Directive 2008/48/EC and EU standards. In particular, this refers to the definition of the goal of the Law of Ukraine «On Consumer Crediting», basic terms and concepts, such as «consumer», «creditor», «credit intermediary», «total cost of the credit to the consumer», «total amount payable by the consumer»; regulation of information obligations of the creditor, the procedure for disclosing information and the legal mechanism for calculating the annual percentage rate of charge and total amount payable by the consumer, and regulation of activities of credit intermediaries.
To improve the civil regulation of relations in the field of consumer credit, relevant scientifically based proposals and recommendations were formed, including those that are relevant in the context of bringing national legislation in line with EU legislation.
