Brussels, 01/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU legislation on the application of European consumer law is effective because, since its entry into force in 2007, it has allowed proper cooperation between the national authorities tasked with enforcing the consumer protection rules and preserving the collective interests of consumers. But there is still room for improvement, according to a report published on Tuesday 1 July by the European Commission (DG SANCO).
This report on the functioning of the regulation on cooperation on consumer protection matters (Regulation no. 2006/2004, known as the CPC regulation) - the third of its kind - stresses the need for cooperation mechanisms making it possible to tackle, in one action, the same infringement against European law committed to the detriment of the economic interests of EU consumers in several countries, even if this infringement is not of a cross-border nature.
This is one of the recommendations made by the EU Consumer Summit in March 2013, calling for a more integrated approach to the enforcement of consumer rights or single actions at EU level (see EUROPE 10807 of 16 March 2013). The Commission will take account of the conclusions of this report in its work to modify the application framework of consumer rights in the EU, with a view to increasing the effectiveness of this framework.
The CPC regulation commits the competent national authorities to creating a European application network of the legislation. Its revision, which was begun in 2011, aims to assess whether the current cooperation mechanisms are adequate to respond to the new challenges to the application of the law brought about by the rapid development of consumer markets, the growing presence of operators acting across the entire EU market and pressure on the resources available to the authorities tasked with enforcing consumer law. The results of this in-depth revision exercise will be the subject of a report by the European Commission by early next year.
The report is available online at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/enforcement/cross-border_enforcement_cooperation/docs/140701_commission_report_cpc_reg_en.pdf (AN)