Towards Consumer Social Responsibility

Abstract Aim/Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the existence of a Consumer Social Responsibility, legally based on the second-generation EU consumerism, which affects companies deeply in hiring socially responsible choices of business. Design/methodology/approach – The method followed-up of CSR is a bottom-up perspective. In accordance with several studies in Economics, Political Science and Sociology, I propose two assumptions: firstly, the citizen-consumer has great power in directing business strategies especially if related to big enterprises; secondly, as a consequence of the empowerment of his rights by EU consumer legislation, the consumer as a citizen has now a moral responsibility when he makes purchase choices. Among consumers a strategic role is entrusted to the “State”, that I call “super consumer”, which is responsible for achieving the objectives of saving energy (expected in the «Europe Strategy 2020») and increasing the sector of green procurements. Findings – I argue that it’s possible to affirm the existence of a juridical consumer responsibility which is part of a European strategy to inspire voluntary sustainable choices by corporations, imposing from the bottom a legal social responsibility for consumers. I assume that the concept of “responsible consumer”, which is typical of the second-generation EU consumerism, leads on the enterprises to make sustainable choices in business to match consumer preferences while still making profits. Research implication/limitation - Pieces of evidence that confirm the main idea are collected throughout three sectors of EU consumer legislation: financial market, energy, environment and public procurement, which are investigated with special regard to Italian law. The most significant limitation of the study is its restriction on investigating only three sample domains among more huge sectors within EU consumer law. Originality/value/contribution –There are no any previous studies in Italy on the role played by consumer law in affecting CSR, and most generally within juridical European literature on CSR about the influence of consumers legal responsibility in socially responsible choices of companies. In addition, it leads on to the original idea of the existence of juridical consumers’ duties inferring by consumers’ rights as inseparable effect of the empowerment of consumers.