Relational Consumer Contracts: New Challenges for Brazilian Consumer Law

This article outlines the main features of relational contracts, and argues for their importance in modern service-oriented societies. It then examines the Brazilian Consumer Protection Code, suggesting that it opens up prospects for the legal acknowledgement of relational characteristics of contracts in general and of consumer contracts in particular. The article also examines the impact of the Code on private pension fund contracts and banking contracts. Finally, the article discusses the importance for consumers of the duty to inform in the context of market defects, and the extent to which the duty to inform is advanced in the Brazilian Code.