CONSUMER RIGHTS

The ongoing debate about the consumer acquis in the European Parliament is speeding up and parliamentarians seem to slowly come to a compromise on the newly proposed concept – targeted full harmonisation.

Does the compromise follow the needs of the European businesses? Business associations keep calling for removing obstacles arising from 27 different national rules (outcome of the currently applied concept of minimum harmonisation) while still ensuring common level of consumer protection.

Based on long and thorough discussions, businesses:

Urge the final compromise to equally weight the interests of consumers and those of businesses, not adding any extra unnecessary burden on traders
Urge to ensure removing obstacles from 27 different national rules and derogations and exceptions shall be kept to minimum
Urge the concept of minimum harmonisation not to be used even in areas with difficulties. On the contrary, maintaining the current legal framework in such areas would be much more beneficial
Call for the same legal framework to apply for on-line, distance and face-to-face contracts. Differentiation of regimes would violate the spirit of the Single Market and create uneven playground
Support the approach of the reporter from IMCO Committee regarding the definitions, distance and off-premises contracts, conformity and passing of risk