Emotional values as relevant elements for the analysis of contractual performance: the importance of attaching emotion to a brand in Consumer Law

Abstract

This article intends to propose the challenge of facing the existence of emotion within contractual and consumer relations. The idea is simple: certain goods are made to attract their customers by the experience and the feeling that they provide. Thus, if the construction of a brand and a product contains the creation of an emotion attached to them, the contractual relations are influenced by the same mechanism. A breach of relevant emotion to the consumer of the product is cause of non-conformity of the good and, in last case, cause for termination and for the obligation to indemnify. The idea seems to have a difficult insertion in domestic jurisprudence, but the comparative law analysis reveals the growing importance given to emotion within contract law, its implications within the market and its technical and legal consequences.