EU – Baltic States, Internet, Modern EU, Retail, Security

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.