France, which has just taken over the EU Council presidency for 6 months, aims to better protect consumers, and to give them and businesses “the means to participate in the environmental and climate effort”, according to the work programme it has published.
To this end, it says it will ensure that work progresses on improving consumer information on the environmental characteristics of the products they buy and their protection against certain unfair commercial practices, such as planned obsolescence.
To do this, the French Presidency intends to rely on the proposal for a regulation that the Commission plans to present at the end of March on substantiating environmental claims (known as ‘green’ claims) using the product/organisation environmental footprint methods.
The other two major legislative issues it intends to take forward are general product safety and proposed new rules for consumer credit.
For example, the Presidency intends to push forward discussions in the EU Council on the proposal for a regulation presented in June 2021 to adapt the now obsolete 2001 General Product Safety Directive (2001/95/EC, known as GPSD) for the digital age (see EUROPE 12752/2).
It will continue work on the proposal for a directive on consumer credit agreements, also presented last June, in order to adapt directive 2008/48/EC to the changes in practice observed with the rise of digital technology, to ensure better protection for consumers, who have been weakened by the Covid-19 crisis, and to guarantee harmonised conditions for credit companies (see EUROPE 12752/3).
Under the French Presidency, discussions will be launched on the revision of Directive 2002/65/EC, concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services.
The French Presidency and the European Commission will hold a ministerial conference on consumer protection on 10 and 11 February.
See the work programme of the French Presidency of the EU Council: https://bit.ly/3EOfJcZ (in French) (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)