Private Law and the Internal Market

Private law and private law relationships in Member States of the European Union are increasingly influenced by EU law. Sometimes, this influence is predictable, for instance because EU law provides expressly that violation of a rule shall produce a specific private law effect (Article 101(2) TFEU). Less predictable are the consequences where the Court of Justice interprets provisions of EU law ostensibly addressed to the Member States such as creating, modifying or extinguishing rights and obligations in legal relationships between individuals. Since 1974 the Court has given interpretations to such direct horizontal effect to some of the TFEU provisions on free movement --Back cover.