The draft Council of the EU conclusions on the new 2021-2025 Consumer Agenda that will guide EU policy have been finalised.
On Wednesday 10 February, the EU-27’s Permanent Representatives to the EU (Coreper) endorsed the text, which welcomes this programme and its two main priorities - the green and digital transitions - and supports actions to identify and establish measures to reconcile a high level of effective consumer protection and consumer empowerment in the transition to a greener, more digital and fairer single market in the post-Covid-19 recovery period (see EUROPE 12638/7).
The agreed text, which is dated 5 February, stresses the importance of maintaining a high level of consumer protection in times of crisis, underlines the link between consumer confidence and economic growth and emphasises the protection of vulnerable consumers.
If it is adopted, the Council of the EU will support revision of the Consumer Credit Directive and the Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services Directive, through implementation of specific measures preventing consumer misinformation, over-indebtedness and social exclusion. The Commission will be encouraged to look into how to protect consumers from becoming over-indebted when taking out certain types of loan.
The conclusions also support revision of the General Product Safety Directive, with a view to creating a level playing field for the safety of online and offline products by improving systems of recall, enforcement and traceability, in order to ensure that all products placed on the single market are safe.
The text stresses the importance of setting up a clear responsibility and liability framework for online platforms and a regular dialogue between those platforms and the Commission.
It is reported that the Council of the EU also support clear interaction between the proposed legislation on digital services and on digital markets.
The draft conclusions can be found at: https://bit.ly/3q7urVO (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)