Information and product liability-a game of russian roulette?

Information as an aspect of consumer rights has been developed mainly in the context of consumer contracting. Ensuring that the consumer is provided with sufficient information to determine whether he wants to enter into a contract is obviously a way of promoting his autonomy whilst not unduly interfering with the autonomy of the trader.1 Although the trader’s freedom is inhibited through procedural and information requirements these should not unduly inhibit innovation and in fact should promote competition (and hence innovation) through market forces. For many consumer contracts, where the risks associated with making a bad decision are economic in nature and often limited in impact, information rights are a sensible way of encouraging self-reliance by the consumer and transparency from traders. Of course, there are limits to such a laissez-faire attitude, especially where the contracts concerned are for high value, of long duration or involve consumers who may not be able to look after their own interests. These issues are explored by many of the other contributors.