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Wednesday, 24.04.2024, 13:39
Consumer protection: EU legal aspects in online trade
After years of extensive legal preparation, the European
Parliament and the Council of Europe in November 2019 adopted a Directive on better enforcement and
modernisation of EU consumer protection. Adopted in 2004, the Consumer
Protection Cooperation Regulation (establishing so-called CPC-rules) linked national
consumer authorities in a pan-European enforcement network has been amended
several times. According to CPC, a national authority in one EU country can
request the assistance of their counterpart in another EU country to stop a
cross-border infringement of EU consumer law.
See: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32004R2006.
The new CPC rules, which will be applicable from 17 January
2020, will extend existing system to allow EU-member states’ cooperation in new
areas such as infringements of short duration or combating misleading
advertising campaigns.
It will improve the current framework by the following
innovations:
- Extending the scope of the CPC rules to allow for
cooperation in new areas. These new areas include infringements of short
duration, as well as including new, previously not covered legislative areas,
e.g. cross-border portability of online content services, passenger rights,
unjustified geo-blocking and financial services (for example, including art. 20
of the Services Directive, which lays down the non-discrimination provision for
services in the EU);
- Strengthening the competent authorities’ “minimum powers”
to cooperate in the cross-border context, and especially faster tackling bad
online practices. These include the power to carry out test purchases and
mystery shopping, to suspend and take down websites, to impose interim
measures, as well as imposing penalties which are proportionate to the
cross-border dimension of the imputed practice;
- Putting in place stronger coordinated mechanisms to
investigate and tackle widespread infringements;
- Allowing national and EU authorities to accept commitments
from traders to provide remedies to affected consumers in cases of widespread
illegal commercial practices. The authorities will also be able to inform
affected consumers on how to seek compensation as provided for in national
legislation;
- Allowing external bodies such as consumer and trade
associations (invited by the states) and European Consumer Centers to post
alerts and signal issues to authorities and the Commission.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/consumers/consumer-protection-cooperation-regulation_en
More in the Regulation
(EC) No 2006/2004 at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02004R2006-20181203
New “deal for consumers”
The new Directive on better enforcement and modernisation of
Union consumer protection rules, part of the New Deal For Consumers, was
adopted at the end of November 2019; it amends existing EU consumer law
instruments by further enhancing transparency for consumers when they buy on
online marketplaces, make online searches or consult user reviews.
More in the Directive
in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/2161/oj
The “New Deal for Consumers” was
initiated to strengthen enforcement of EU consumer law in view of a
growing risk of EU-wide infringements and at modernising EU consumer
protection rules through extensive online market developments. The
Commission adopted the “deal” in April 2018, which actually included two
proposals – one for a Directives and another one as a Communication: a)
proposal on Communication on the New Deal for Consumers (see in: COM
(2018) 183), and b) a proposal on representative actions for the protection
of the collective interests of consumers and repealing the Injunctions
Directive 2009/22/EC ('Representative Actions Proposal'), can be seen in: COM(2018)
184.
Besides, several other legal instruments have been adopted:
a) in COM(2018)
185: a proposal to amend Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in
consumer contracts; b) Directive 98/6/EC on consumer protection in the
indication of the prices of products offered to consumers; c) Directive
2005/29/EC concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial
practices, and d) Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights
('Proposal on better enforcement and modernisation).
Following these proposals, the Directive on better enforcement and modernisation of EU consumer
protection was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 27
November 2019.
Information about the
new Directive in: Factsheet
- New Deal: What benefits will I get as a consumer? Source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/consumers/review-eu-consumer-law-new-deal-consumers_en
As next steps, national consumer protection authorities will
assess the implementation of these commitments. These were made without
prejudice to any other assessment of compliance with consumer law principles
that authorities may raise in the context of national administrative or
judicial proceedings. Under the coordination of the Commission, the states will
also assess the practices of other major online travel services platforms.
The European
Commission and national consumer authorities are supposed to monitor all online
trade platforms to ensure a fair online environment for consumers, underlined Commissioner
for Justice and Consumers, Didier Reynders.
Booking.com: efforts in consumer protection
Following dialogue with the European Commission and national
consumer authorities, Booking.com has committed to make changes in the way it
presents offers, discounts and prices to consumers. Once these new changes are
fully applied by Booking, consumers should be better able to make informed
comparisons in line with the requirements of EU consumer law.
The European Commission and national consumer protection
(CPC) authorities, under the lead of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers
and Markets (ACM), assessed the commitments that Booking.com proposed at EU/EEA
level, following contacts spanning the last year. CPC authorities are confident
that the commitments will bring the company's practices in line with the
requirements of EU consumer law.
Booking.com has committed to make some changes to their
practices by 16 June 2020 in order to: a) make clear to consumers that any
statement such as “last room available!” refers only to the offer on the
Booking.com platform; b) clarify how results are ranked
and, whether payments made by the accommodation provider to Booking.com have
influenced its position in the list of results; c) ensure that it is clear when
a price
comparison is based on different circumstances (e.g. stay dates) and
not present that comparison as a discount; d) ensure that price comparisons presented as
discounts represent genuine savings, e.g. by providing details about
the Standard Rate price taken as a reference; e) display the total
price that the consumers will have to pay (including all unavoidable
charges, fees and taxes that can reasonably be calculated in advance) in a
clear and prominent way, etc.
More information on the issue in the following web-links:
- Complete list of commitments,
and - More
information on consumer enforcement actions.