Brussels, 08/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - To stimulate European consumer confidence in the digital world in order that they take better advantage of the potential of online purchasing in the single market: this is the Commission's ambition. This ambition is also fed by an observation: consumers contribute 58% of EU GDP through their spending, but only a handful - just 6% - purchase online from beyond the borders of their own country. The Green Paper on the review of the acquis communautaire concerning consumption, adopted on 7 February by the College of Commissioners, aims to launch a broad consultation on the planned re-jig of Community provisions governing consumption in the EU, to adapt them to the challenges of the mutating digital world.
The Commission hopes to use the information gathered as a result of the Green Paper to provide the EU with clear and simple legislation which will enable consumers to know their rights, make correct decisions and find recourse to adequate protection in case of any problems. Clear legal rules will also incite businesses, and particularly SMEs, to push themselves beyond their usual boundaries to exploit the potential of the market. This will no longer be a luxury as, according to a Eurobarometer survey published on 8 February, although 57% of small business report that they sell products via the internet, more than two-thirds do so exclusively within their own country, and of the 29% who go beyond their national borders, the majority sell to no more than two other member states. 43% of small businesses believe that cross-border sales would increase if the laws governing consumers' transactions were the same all over Europe.
Presenting the Commission initiative to the press, Ms Meglena Kuneva, the new commissioner for consumer policy stressed the need to act quickly. “The context of globalisation, of which this Green Paper is a part, is a challenge and an indication that Europe is falling behind. Only 6% of all the consumers who use the internet are inclined to use the net to make cross-border purchases. We must look in depth at consumer law. At the moment consumers are not benefiting from balanced online transactions, and complex regulations are snuffing out the brilliant ideas of the companies of tomorrow. The question is one of whether we can afford to have, in an EU of 27, online mini-markets, and deprive the consumer of choice, opportunities and competitive prices”. With the review of the basic provisions, the EU has several objectives to achieve: improving the operations of the internal market, meeting the challenge of globalisation, defining priorities in favour of citizens, improving legislation and creating policy in favour of growth and employment, the commissioner said. “The figures prove that businesses are not satisfied with the current level of consumer protection”, she added.
The Green Paper covers the measured which could be envisaged in 28 areas, which are currently covered by eight directives, among these: - consolidating the concept of deliveries for cross-border purchases (the number one cause for complaint among online purchasers); improving consumer protection and clarifying their rights in case of delayed, faulty or partial delivery; - clarifying and simplifying the rules concerning returning products (uses vary widely across the EU, from simple notification of the vendor through to obligations to use recorded delivery); - harmonising the right to revocation and the cost of returning merchandise (currently the cost of returning a product can be nothing at all or entirely incumbent on the consumer); - simplifying the means of recourse for consumers by harmonising the rules applicable (the Green Paper envisages a system to allow the consumer to opt for the recourse of their choice); - clarifying, using Community standards, the rules governing cooling-off periods which enable consumers to return a product within a certain period of time if they change their mind; - the new difficulties which will have to be resolved: should the guarantees and rights currently covering products be extended to certain services?
Responding to a journalist who asked her if she intended to integrate music downloads and online auctions such as eBay into the legislation, Ms Kuneva said: “Certainty and equal treatment of consumers however they purchase goods or merchandise are my objectives".
Why wait before making concrete proposals? “Because it is important to work on creating a consensus for the future policy, a sustainable policy which will be the barometer of market development, will allow us to strengthen consumer confidence and help us to legislate well for the next 15 or 20 years”, said Ms Kuneva.
MEP Malcolm Harbour, an EPP-ED group coordinator within the Parliament's internal market committee, welcomed the publication of the Green Paper. “The new developments in the market, the fragmentation of the rules and the lack of consistency between various directives have made this re-examination inevitable. This is evident when you read the statistics which reveal that 56% of EU consumers do not have confidence in cross-border consumer protection”. (an)