Information Duties under German General Contract Law and the German Law of Consumer Contracts

I. Introduction: The Age of Information Duties | 1. The Tremendous Expansion of Information Duties in German Contract Law | 2. The Underlying Legal Principles in a Free Market Order | a) Freedom of contract and individual responsibility with regard to information | b) Trust, market disturbances and structural imbalances | c) Individual responsibility as a rule and the duty to inform as an exception | 3. The Teleological Foundations of Information Duties | a) Pre-contractual information duties | b) Contractual duties to inform | 4. The adequate allocation of the contractual risk | II. Information Duties in General Contract Law | 1. Taxonomy of Information Duties | 2. The Legal Basis of Information Duties | a) Consultancy agreements and information agreements | b) Pre-contractual Information Duties | aa) Specific information duties | bb) The broad general rule (Sec. 311 para. 2, 241 para. 2 BGB) | c) Contractual information duties | d) Subsequent information duties | 3. The Legal Consequences of a Violation of the Duty to Inform | 4. Current Issues with regard to Information Duties in General Contract Law | a) Limits to implicit contracts for information | b) Rule of thumb for formulating specific duties to inform | c) The importance of information asymmetry | d) The adequate allocation of the burden of proof for a violation of the information duty | III. Information Duties in Consumer Contracts | 1. Scope of Information Duties in Consumer Contracts | a) Objects of information duties | b) Legal consequences of a violation of the duty to inform | aa) The claim for damages | bb) Specific legal consequences | 2. Rationale of Information Duties in Consumer Contracts | 3. Current Issues for Information Duties in Consumer Contracts | a) Information overload; one-page limitation | b) Malfunctioning of information duties | c) The “Widerrufsjoker” (The ‘wild-card’ – the right of rescission) | IV. Future prospects