A Study On The Unfair Terms In International Consumer Contracts

Considering the fast development of international consumption, this essay emphasison the particularity of unfair terms in international consumer contract, hoping to bringsome positive methods for the improvement of identifying and controlling unfairterms in consumer contracts in Chinese law.Three core chapters compose this article.The first section discusses some basictheories about unfair terms.The particularity of unfair terms in international consumercontracts is emphasized in this section. Since the standard of identifying unfaircontracts varied from country to country, the choice of law will significantly influencethe identification of unfair terms. Thus the principle of habitual residence togetherwith the forum state is mainly argued in this small section.The Second part mainlydistinguishes standard contact terms from unfair contract terms: firstly, the authorindicate why these two terms are easily confused and how necessary that these twotypes of terms should be regarded differently; secondly, controlling standard formclause in consumer contracts is emphatically discussed.The third portion in this articlediscusses several key issues about unfair terms in consumer contracts. Four smallparts are set up in this portion. First, several countries’ legislation on identifyingunfair terms in consumer contracts are listed for reference. Second, the authorillustrate different legal validity of unfair terms, absolute unfair contract terms andrelative unfair contract terms. Third, the author analysis some important elements ofidentifying unfair terms according to the regulations mentioned above. The last partillustrates some frequently-used measures in fixing unfair terms in consumercontracts. The finale concludes the importance of controlling unfair terms ininternational consumer contracts, as well as the standards of identifying those terms.The author has made comparison between foreign law and domestic law under thisissue, pointing out room for improvement in identifying unfair contract terms.