Brussels, 29/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU consumers will henceforth be better equipped for identifying and defending themselves against unfair commercial practices by unscrupulous operators and professional swindlers in crossborder trade. On Friday 29 July, the European Commission launched an online database (http://www.webgate.ec.europa.eu/ucp/ ) to make legal data on unfair commercial practices publicly available. The website provides an overview of the legal data that exists on unfair commercial practice, against which EU law is fighting with its own common base of rules to protect EU consumers' rights.
The Commission trusts this database will help to promote a common understanding of the unfair commercial practices directive (2005/29/EC which took effect on 12 December 2007) by EU consumers/citizens, and facilitate the work of national authorities entrusted with the task of putting the directive into application. The database also provides an overview of the national laws transposing the directive into national law, jurisprudence, administrative decisions and references to relevant literature. The database is user friendly and has advanced search functions.
Directive 2005/29/EC aims to protect consumers - especially the most vulnerable consumers - against practices that it sets out and proscribes, as they are misleading and aim to influence consumers' purchasing behaviour. This, for example, is the case when misleading promotion is made for a product at an advantageous price when the product in question is a copy rather than the original, or when notification is sent to consumers by post that a prize has been won when in fact that prize does not exist, or when a financial outlay must be made to acquire that prize. The blacklist of these practices is annexed to the draft directive. (A.N./transl.jl)