On the basis of a revised negotiating mandate, the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council will begin forthcoming negotiations with the European Parliament on the directive that will, for the first time, set minimum rules for offering collective redress procedures to consumers deliberately harmed by unfair practices by the same company infringing EU law.
The Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) agreed on Wednesday 26 February to slightly amend the EU Council’s general approach to facilitate progress at the second trilogue scheduled for 2 March with Parliament’s negotiators, led by Geoffroy Didier (EPP, France) (see EUROPE 12404/13).
The amendments specifically concern two articles relating to qualified entities, namely: Article 4 (which defines who can be a qualified entity, entitled to represent consumers) and Article 7 on the financing of representative actions. They constitute minor changes to the structure of the Articles, since the EU Council has maintained the distinction it made between national and cross-border representation actions.
With regard to Article 4, the revised mandate provides for a return to the Commission’s original wording to unify the text instead of providing for an Article 4 for national representation actions and an Article 4A for cross-border representation actions.
The EU Council, which had deleted Article 7 and introduced it in other articles of the future directive, agreed to reinstate the supervision of the financing of qualified entities.
These are the only two points on which delegations were called to give revised terms of reference.
The interinstitutional negotiations on 2 March will focus on: - the definition of national and cross-border representation actions; - differential treatment and the impact of the distinction between the two procedures; - and financing conditions for qualified entities. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)