Preface -- Chapter I: Introduction -- 1. General introduction -- 2. The guarantee paradox - the main problem fields -- 2.1 Lack of legislation -- 2.2 Lack of knowledge and lack of distinction -- 2.3 Lack of a legal construction of a guarantee -- 2.4 If it is so problematic why use it? - the positive aspects of guarantee -- 3. Origins of guarantee - introduction -- 3.1 Etymology of the word -- 3.2 Origins of the guarantee -- 3.3 Evolution of the guarantee -- 4. Guarantee on the modern market -- 4.1 General -- 4.2 Fields of guarantee application -- 5. Functions of the guarantee -- 6. Scope of the dissertation and the research question -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Why only sales? -- 6.3 Why only consumer sales? -- 6.4 Sales means services these days -- 6.5 Guarantees by producers and guarantees by other parties -- 6.6 Other functions of the guarantee -- 7. The research question and the plan of the thesis -- 8. Methodology -- Chapter II: The consumer sales guarantee in EU policies -- 1. From competition law to private law - consumer sales guarantees in European policies -- 2. Guarantees in competition law -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Article 101 (formerly Article 81) -- 2.3 European competition law on consumer sales guarantees -decisions, cases and resolutions -- 3. Guarantees in consumer programmes -- 3.1 Opening the discussion -- 3.2 The Unfair Contract Terms Directive -- 3.3 The Green Paper of 1993 -- 3.4 The following developments -- 3.5 The Consumer Sales Directive -- 3.6 After the Consumer Sales Directive -- 3.7 Further review of the consumer acquis -- 4. Conclusions -- 4.1 The aim of this chapter -- 4.2 What conclusions may be drawn from analysing the policy steps regarding the guarantee? -- Chapter III: Consumer sales guarantees - European regulatory framework -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 General.

1.2 Regulatory assumptions of the Directive -- 1.3 Analysing the Directive -- 2. Analysis of the Directive's rules -- 2.1 The scope of the rules on the guarantee in the Directive -- 2.2 General: name, source, legal nature, creation -- 2.3 Contents of the guarantee -- 2.4 Transparency requirements -- 2.5 Infringements -- 2.6 Omitted issues -- 3. Conclusions -- 3.1 General evaluation -- 3.2 Assumptions of the Directive concerning the guarantee: are they correct? -- 3.3 Assumptions of the Directive concerning the guarantee: are they fulfilled? -- Chapter IV: Analysis of the consumer sales guarantee - general part -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 General introduction -- 1.2 The scope of the analysis -- 2. The name -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Order of the analysis -- 2.3 A guarantee: what does it mean? -- 2.4 The problems -- 2.5 Variety of names -- 2.6 Reasons for the differentiation in terms -- 2.7 Legal and commercial guarantees -- 2.8 The proposed solutions -- 2.9 Conclusions: how to avoid confusion? -- 3. The dual nature of the guarantee -- 3.1 General introduction -- 3.2 The scope of the analysis -- 3.3 The dual nature of the guarantee: voluntary and obligatory guarantees -- 3.4 Voluntary guarantees -- 3.5 Content of the voluntary guarantee -- 3.6 Obligatory guarantees -- 3.7 The source of the guarantee - a summary -- 4. The legal form of a guarantee -- 4.1 What is the legal form? -- 4.2 The European approach -- 4.3 Why is it important to make such a classification? -- 4.4 Plan of the analysis -- 4.5 Sellers vs. other participants of the commercial chain -- 5. Legal guarantee and commercial guarantee - internal and external relationships between two regimes -- 5.1 Introduction.

5.2 The external relationship between the statutory liability regime (conformity) and guarantee -- 5.3 The internal relationship -- 6. Conclusions -- 6.1 General -- 6.2 Specific areas -- Chapter V: Analysis of the consumer sales guarantee - specific part -- 1. General introduction -- 2. Parties engaged in the guarantee relation -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 The party who offers the guarantee and the party who transmits the guarantee to the buyer -- 2.3 The seller's position in a guarantee offered by the producer -- 2.4 Seller's guarantee -- 2.5 The party who receives the guarantee and the party who benefits from the guarantee -- 2.6 Who performs under the guarantee and who is liable under the guarantee? -- 3. Coverage of the guarantee -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Methods of indicating the scope of the guarantee coverage -- 3.3 Mandatory coverage -- 3.4 Default coverage -- 3.5 The minimum content -- 3.6 Establishing the content by reference -- 4. Analysis of the guarantee coverage in the strict sense -- 4.1 General introduction -- 4.2 The coverage in the strict sense -- 5. Remedies of the guarantee -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 The typical remedies -- 5.3 Practicalities of invoking the remedial system -- 6. Free guarantee and guarantee against payment -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Should guarantees be for free or against payment? -- 6.3 Where can the guarantor impose a charge (the 3 types)? -- 6.4 Extended guarantees as a form of a guarantee against payment -- 7. Duration of the guarantee -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Measuring the duration -- 7.3 Computation of the guarantee duration -- 8. Limitations on the guarantor's liability under the guarantee -- 8.1 Limitations regarding content -- 8.2 Limitations based on formal requirements -- 8.3 Burden of proof -- 8.4 Conclusions -- 9. Transparency requirements -- 9.1 Introduction.

9.2 Why ensuring transparency is important in the case of guarantees. -- 9.3 Transparency requirements - general overview -- 9.4 Different perspectives of assuring the guarantee's transparency -- 9.5 Information allowing an informed choice by the consumer -- 9.6 Putting the guarantee in the proper context -- 9.7 Information that allows the enforcement of the guarantee -- 9.8 The requirement to "activate" the guarantee -- 9.9 Availability of the guarantee document - general -- 9.10 Language and formulation -- 9.11 What if the transparency requirements are not met? -- 9.12 Where the content of the guarantee should be presented - in relation to the advertisement - a mention -- 10. Conclusions -- Chapter VI: Conclusions -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Overview of the thesis -- 2.1 The aim of the thesis -- 2.2 Overview of the chapters and conclusions drawn on their basis -- 3. General conclusions -- 3.1 Conclusions regarding the Consumer Sales Directive -- 3.2 Conclusion from the point of view of national legal systems -- 3.3 Conclusions regarding the legislative process at the EU level -- 4. Conclusions reaching beyond the scope of research questions -- Annex -- Consumer Sales Guarantees in the European Union - a summary -- Garanties bij de verkoop van consumptiegoederen in de Europese Unie - samenvatting -- Gwarancja przy sprzedazy konsumenckiej w Unii Europejskiej - streszczenie -- Bibliography -- Official documents -- Index.