Commission Launches Public Consultation on Fitness Check of Consumer Law; Results to Feed Into Proposed Contract Rules for Online Purchases of Goods

The Commission has launched a public consultation on the evaluation (Fitness Check) of the EU consumer legislation. The consultation will close on 2 September 2016. This consultation takes place in the context of the ‘Fitness Check’ of EU consumer and marketing law. The purpose of the Fitness Check is to evaluate if these directives are fit for purpose on the basis of the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value. The following six directives are subject to this Fitness Check: * Unfair Contract Terms Directive 93/13/EEC ; * Consumer Sales and Guarantees Directive 1999/44/EC; * Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC; * Price Indication Directive 98/6/EC; * Misleading and Comparative Advertising Directive 2006/114/EC; * Injunctions Directive 2009/22/EC. * In addition, this consultation covers also the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, which is subject to a separate evaluation. The findings of the Fitness Check will provide basis for future policy initiatives in this area. The current consultation therefore includes forward-looking questions on the potential areas to modernise the EU consumer and marketing rules. The results of this public consultation will also feed into the currently ongoing legislative process on the Commissione proposal for a directive on certain concerning contracts for the online and other distance sales of goods. Next Steps · The European Parliament’s IMCO Committee will continue its work on the proposal (no timetable is available yet). It will hold a hearing on 24 May 2016 (the agenda is not available yet). · The Council Working Party on Civil Law Matters is not working at the moment on this proposal; it is rather focusing its work on the other measure of the package, namely the proposal on digital content. It is understood that the reason for this is because Member States had previously indicated they needed time for reflection for the proposal on distance sales pending the results of the ongoing REFIT exercise on consumer legislation, which is expected to examine rules for offline sales. · The public stakeholder consultation on the evaluation (Fitness Check) of the EU consumer legislation will close on 2 September 2016. The results will feed into the ongoing legislative process concerning the proposal on online and distance sales of goods. · The Justice Council is still provisionally expected to hold a policy debate on the proposal on 9-10 June 2016.   Links: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/consumer-marketing/opinion/160502_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/rights-contracts/unfair-contract/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/rights-contracts/sales-guarantee/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/unfair-trade/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/unfair-trade/price/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/unfair-trade/false-advertising/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/enforcement/injunctions/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/rights-contracts/directive/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/justice/contract/digital-contract-rules/index_en.htm http://www.ccbe.eu/ http://twitter.com/#!/CCBEinfo 18 maggio 2016