At the end of September, the EU Commission published a new, comprehensive, and timely Study on European consumers' over-indebtedness and its implications. The study takes a muti-disciplinary approach aiming to get a clear and updated picture of over-indebtedness among European households and consumers.
The aim of the study was broken into five distinct tasks:
• obtain a granular and updated mapping of the situation of over-indebtedness among European households and consumers in all 27 EU Member States
• gather improved knowledge of the perspectives, perceptions, and challenges of EU consumers in relation to over-indebtedness, including in light of whether or not they have personally experienced it and their knowledge of financial matters
• collect more, and more precise, information about the macro-economic drivers of over-indebtedness and their short-, medium- and long-term impact, including an analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recent energy price shocks and rising inflation
• provide an in-depth legal analysis of concrete interactions between EU and national rules and provisions covering consumer credit, mortgage credit, and other contiguous matters
• conduct a behavioural experiment focused on assessing the capacity of households and consumers to make informed and optimal credit choices.
With almost 300 pages of empirical data, behavioral experiments, legal analysis, and literature review, this study could be useful for everyone working or interested in the area of financial consumer law.
