Brussels, 13/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On 8 October the European Commission decided to enter the next stage of infringement proceedings against three member states for persistently failing to comply with EU consumer legislation.
A warning letter has been sent to Spain under Article 228 of the EU Treaty due to the country's failure to meet its duty to implement a 2009 ruling from the European Court of Justice (Case C-321/08) over its failure to communicate measures taken to implement Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair trading practices. The deadline for transposing the directive was 12 June 2007 but Spain has not yet transposed the directive into its domestic legislation. If the Spanish government fails to take speedy action to comply with EU law, the European Commission may send it to the Court of Justice again, requesting that Spain be fined. The size of the fine would be in line with the serious nature and duration of its failure to comply.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia have been sent a reasoned opinion (the second stage of infringement proceedings under Article 226 of the EU Treaty) for persistent failure to fully transpose EU Directive 93/13/EEC on tackling unfair terms in consumer contracts into domestic law by 1 May 2004. The Commission says that the laws of both countries fail to provide enough protection to consumers. The warning letters sent to Prague and Bratislava over this shortcoming did not lead to the countries complying (the infringement proceedings launched against Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia have all now been closed).
The Commission explains that it would appear that, contrary to the directive, a consumer in the Czech Republic will be bound by an unfair contract term as long as they do not actively invoke its unfairness; and a consumer in Slovakia might be bound by an unfair contract term, as national legislation does not provide for an objective assessment of the unfairness.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia have two months to reply to these reasoned opinions. If the Commission does not receive a reply, or, if the observations presented by the national authorities are not satisfactory, the Commission may bring the matter before the European Court of Justice. (A.N./transl.fl)