Brussels, 27/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 February, after years of negotiations, the European Parliament endorsed draft legislation to introduce optional EU rules for remote selling and selling on the internet that would operate alongside the 28 member states' existing schemes.
The MEPs have reduced the scope of the new rules by restricting them to distance selling rather than the European Commission's suggestion that the rules should cover all cross-border sales.
In a press release, Alexandra Thein (ALDE, Germany) said that the idea is to help companies gain new markets without extra costs arising from differing national legislations so this will help companies offer their products in a number of member states under the same conditions as apply in the contract in the country of origin.
The new system will only apply if the two parties agree on the contract, failing which the existing national laws would apply. Member states' legal systems will not be affected when the regulation comes into force.
French Socialists are unhappy with the idea. Françoise Castex, who voted against it, says that having 28 legal systems running alongside the new EU system will simply cause confusion for consumers and companies, introduce legal insecurity and a rounding down of consumer protection. She backs the idea of simplifying and harmonising, but feels this is not one of the European Commission's best ideas. This new, twenty-ninth, system will either give consumers better protection than the system in their member state and will therefore not be used by companies, or it will provide worse protection than the national systems, in which case it would amount to “social dumping”, she argued. (MD)