Brussels, 24/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Commission is proposing to strengthen cooperation between Member States' law enforcement authorities to enable them to act in a coordinated manner against criminals taking advantage of the internal market to trick consumers in the EU in cross-border sales involving the internet, direct mail, telephone, or any other technique for that matter.
A draft regulation on the initiative of Consumer Policy Commissioner David Byrne was approved on Tuesday for dealing with the growing cross-border problems encountered as fraudsters get to terms with new technology. Data from the European alliance for ethical publicity (AEEP) bear witness to this. 63% of all cross-border complaints filed between 1992 and 2002 concerned dishonest professionals, and around 86% concerned direct mail. Top of the list of cross-border fraud to the detriment of consumers are threatening and inaccurate mediums, false raffles, direct mail about unsolicited goods “awaiting” collection by the consumer.
If adopted, the regulation would only apply to cross-border violations of EU consumer protection legislation and not to domestic sales. It would force each Member State to designate a public body to apply the law, which would be part of a European mutual aid network. Any of the competent authorities could call for aid from other members of the network to investigate potential violations of EU consumer law, track information or end malpractice. Likewise, each competent authority would be required to provide aid to its counterparts in other Member States.
The regulation would ensure every Member State genuinely applied EU legislation on its territory and would remove obstacles to effective cooperation between national authorities tracking down experts in cross-border consumer fraud. Current informal cooperation (like the international network for consumer protection and controls) faces legal obstacles. For example, in many countries, national legislation prevents the transfer of information to bodies outside the country in question.
The Commission's proposal forms part of its strategy for the single market in 2003-2006, and is a useful addition to the draft framework directive banning dishonest commercial practices in the European Union (see EUROPE of 19 June, p.12)
BEUC thinks the proposal will be very useful in the enlarged EU
The European Consumers' Union (BEUC) immediately welcomed the Commission's initiative, hoping the regulation would be adopted as soon as possible. BEUC notes in a press release that “ The proposed Regulation aims to widen and improve co-operation among national authorities that are in charge of enforcement of consumer protection law. It would introduce a high degree of consumer protection and provide effective and concrete powers for national authorities in case of infringement.
This is important in the current member states, but also within the accession countries. At the moment all consumer related "acquis communautaire” has been transposed into the national law of the accession countries, but it now needs to be very carefully monitored that this legislation is actually implemented in practice.”