Brussels, 16/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The prospect of a common, reinforced rights base for EU consumers buying online is now drawing nearer. On Thursday 16 June, in Brussels, the European Parliament (EP) internal market and consumers committee gave its go-ahead (with no votes against) to the first reading agreement concluded the day before in trialogue on the October 2008 proposal for a consumer rights directive with regard to contracts in order to clarify and strengthen consumers' rights when shopping online and off premises (see EUROPOE 10394 and 10344). The news was immediately welcomed by all parties as a major breakthrough for consumers and for the internal market.
Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany), the chief negotiator for the Parliament, said the future directive will provide greater security for online consumers, will provide harmonised rules for traders and will in no way reduce the level of consumer protection. “The added value of this European law will be clearly noticeable for all citizens in their daily lives - an important success for Europe in these times. (…) We wanted to regulate mainly off-premises and distance contracts, as these situations would have a clear cross-border aspect, thus bringing an equally clear advantage for the internal market”, Schwab commented. He would have liked more to be done to reduce the administrative charges for traders but welcomes the fact that, “at the same time, we have agreed on a light regime for information requirements for certain types of smaller contracts - contracts for amounts up to €50 are completely exempt from the directive. These are rules with an eye for reality and common sense, which will work”, he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Hungarian Presidency, Zoltán Czéfalvay, the minister who chairs the Competitiveness Council, welcomed the vote of the parliamentary committee and expressed the hope that the plenary would adopt the directive in first reading soon. In his view, “this legislation will put consumers more in control of their purchases, protect consumers from unfair practices, enhance consumer choice and increase competition. In times when we are looking for sources of economic growth and job creation, helping to unlock cross border trade and distance selling can provide a critical contribution to our goals”.
Director General of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC) Monique Goyens said on behalf of her organisation that she was “relieved to see the legislators have managed to steer this directive away from its original destination of simply breaking down barriers for business and more towards securing and improving protection for consumers”. She went on to add that the text “most probably will not cause any significant reduction of consumer rights in EU member states”. The pitfall of maximum harmonisation, which was avoided, was in fact the BEUC's main fear. (A.N./transl.jl)