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BackAs AK EUROPA reported on several occasions, the European Commission intends to introduce an EU Sales Law shortly – in addition to national legal provisions. The Commission draft has already been rejected by large sections of the industry and consumer protection organisations. Moreover, the draft report, which has now been presented by the European Parliament, is not met with enthusiasm, neither by trade nor by consumer organisations.
This week, representatives of the industry and consumers were given the opportunity to adopt a position on Parliament’s new draft report on the EU Sales Law in the Legal Committee of the European Parliament. The hope of the rapporteurs, Klaus-Heiner Lehne (European People’s Party) and Luigi Berlinguer (Social Democrats), that practitioners would be more willing to accept the amended draft Regulation, was not fulfilled.
Dora Szentpaly-Kleis, representative of UEAPME, the European craft and SME employers’ organisation, showed little enthusiasm in her analysis of the draft report. She is in favour of applying model contracts. Any restriction of applying the new Regulation to distance selling contracts might confuse trade and consumers. According to Szentpaly-Kleis, all three optional remedies for consumers are raising questions. The third option, which proposes a kind of rent for the duration of the product in case consumers withdraw from the sales contract, is clearly rejected by UEAPME.
Ursula Pachl of the European Consumers' Organisation BEUC also warns that the proposed area of application would lead to a fragmentation of the law: online and offline contracts would be treated differently. In combination with other Directives, several legal norms would apply to purchases and hence cause confusion. Better rights for online purchases would have a discriminatory impact on consumers, who would purchase their goods from a shop and vice versa. Pachl expects traders to be confronted with high costs for legal advice as different laws would apply to online and offline transactions and to cross-border resp. non-cross-border sales contracts. As did the previous speaker, she does not think much of the three proposed alternatives to terminate a sales contract. According to Pachl, consumers would be worse off. The consumer protector is positive about the attempt to capture digital contents: however, these had to be even more harmonised. Pachl concluded her statement by voicing her support for model contracts and a revision of the Consumer Rights Directive as soon as first experiences with this new Directive had been made.
The representative of European E-commerce enterprises, Léon Mölenberg, also finds it difficult to warm towards the proposal of the two rapporteurs. The actual key problems would be logistics, different methods of payment, warranties or national tax rules. Similar to the two previous speakers, he too is concerned about a fragmentation of the law. The regulations of the so-called ROME I Regulation would be much clearer – it was incomprehensible how this could be compatible with the Sales Law. He fears higher costs if it is left to the customer to decide whether EU Sales Law or national law applies to him.
Apart from the Legal Committee, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee is also responsible for the draft Proposal on common European Sales Law. This week, the Committee presented the draft of a statement on EU Sales Law - the two rapporteurs are Hans-Peter Mayer (European People’s Party) and Evelyne Gebhardt (European Socialists). In contrast to the Legal Committee, there is no agreement among the rapporteurs. Whilst Mayer pursues a very similar approach to the Legal Committee, Gebhardt is in favour of a minimum harmonisation of the Sales Laws and considering the existing EU law and the Consumer Rights Directive.
MEPs of both committees now have until April to present amendment proposals. The committees are expected to vote on the proposal in September.
Further information:
AK EUROPA article EU Sales Law: Disappointment about draft report of the European Parliament
Dora Szentpaly-Kleis, representative of UEAPME, the European craft and SME employers’ organisation, showed little enthusiasm in her analysis of the draft report. She is in favour of applying model contracts. Any restriction of applying the new Regulation to distance selling contracts might confuse trade and consumers. According to Szentpaly-Kleis, all three optional remedies for consumers are raising questions. The third option, which proposes a kind of rent for the duration of the product in case consumers withdraw from the sales contract, is clearly rejected by UEAPME.
Ursula Pachl of the European Consumers' Organisation BEUC also warns that the proposed area of application would lead to a fragmentation of the law: online and offline contracts would be treated differently. In combination with other Directives, several legal norms would apply to purchases and hence cause confusion. Better rights for online purchases would have a discriminatory impact on consumers, who would purchase their goods from a shop and vice versa. Pachl expects traders to be confronted with high costs for legal advice as different laws would apply to online and offline transactions and to cross-border resp. non-cross-border sales contracts. As did the previous speaker, she does not think much of the three proposed alternatives to terminate a sales contract. According to Pachl, consumers would be worse off. The consumer protector is positive about the attempt to capture digital contents: however, these had to be even more harmonised. Pachl concluded her statement by voicing her support for model contracts and a revision of the Consumer Rights Directive as soon as first experiences with this new Directive had been made.
The representative of European E-commerce enterprises, Léon Mölenberg, also finds it difficult to warm towards the proposal of the two rapporteurs. The actual key problems would be logistics, different methods of payment, warranties or national tax rules. Similar to the two previous speakers, he too is concerned about a fragmentation of the law. The regulations of the so-called ROME I Regulation would be much clearer – it was incomprehensible how this could be compatible with the Sales Law. He fears higher costs if it is left to the customer to decide whether EU Sales Law or national law applies to him.
Apart from the Legal Committee, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee is also responsible for the draft Proposal on common European Sales Law. This week, the Committee presented the draft of a statement on EU Sales Law - the two rapporteurs are Hans-Peter Mayer (European People’s Party) and Evelyne Gebhardt (European Socialists). In contrast to the Legal Committee, there is no agreement among the rapporteurs. Whilst Mayer pursues a very similar approach to the Legal Committee, Gebhardt is in favour of a minimum harmonisation of the Sales Laws and considering the existing EU law and the Consumer Rights Directive.
MEPs of both committees now have until April to present amendment proposals. The committees are expected to vote on the proposal in September.
Further information:
AK EUROPA article EU Sales Law: Disappointment about draft report of the European Parliament