The Commission released the results of the consultation on the Green Paper for the Review of the Consumer Acquis. The Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General has issued a staff working document which summaries the outcome of the consultation.
A majority of respondents call for a "horizontal" (cross-sector) framework directive on consumer contractual rights, applicable both to domestic and cross-border transactions. This would be based on full harmonization targeting the issues that may raise potential barriers to trade for business and/or deterring consumers from buying cross-border.
The claim is that an internal market justification would be key for any legislative follow-up. In addition, this legislative tool should be complemented with a "vertical" (sector-by-sector) revision of the existing sector-specific Directives such as, for instance, the Timeshare and Package Travel Directives.
A second important result highlighted in the responses is the strong support for a revamping of the consumer acquis to make it more consistent and coherent, with the introduction of common definitions of consumers/professionals and delivery, rules of withdrawal rights and the insertion at EU level of a list of unfair contract terms (a black list with terms that are banned completely) as well as a second list of terms (terms presumed to be unfair).
The Commission will hold a full-day stakeholder conference on the review of the consumer acquis on 14 November 2007. The Conference will primarily aim at collecting stakeholders' practical experiences and views on the application of EU consumer protection legislation, with a view to identifying regulatory problems, and improving the functioning of the EU retail market. Commissioner Kuneva will address the conference.
Commission Working Document
Responses
© Graham Bishop
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