Consumer protection under private European international law

Consumer protection in European private international law is carried out through protective choice-of-law and jurisdiction rules which are specially designed for cross-border consumer contracts. These rules help balancing the bargaining power and make the professional bear the internationalization cost of consumer contract. With some improvements which should be brought to the existing rules, the method used in European private international law in matters relating to consumer contracts is generally satisfactory. On the other hand, its scope is too narrow. With the criterion of "directed activity", the European model is based on the distinction between passive and active consumers. Only passive consumers are covered by the protective rules. This distinction must not lead to the lack of protection for active consumers. In this thesis, it suggests that European private international law provide protective rules for consumers currently not covered. However, the protection must not be carried out by extending the scope of existing protective rules to active consumers but by establishing a second set of protective rules inspired by a better regulation of freedom of contract and a good compromise between professional's interests and consumer protection.