News
BackFor more than two years, Council and European Parliament have debated a Commission proposal, which made the hair of consumer protection representatives stand on end. Consumers would have been faced with a significant deterioration of their rights. Both Council and European Parliament have defused the Commission proposal in their deliberations. Following the vote in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee in the European Parliament, a mixed picture is now surfacing. However, apart from some improvements there is also deterioration emerging compared to the current Austrian consumer protection standards.
A short retrospect: in October 2008, the Commission published a Directive proposal, which intended to replace national consumer protection regulations by an EU-wide Consumer Rights Directive. This would have entailed a significant deterioration of rights for Austria’s consumers, such as:
•In case of warranty it would now be the trader who had the choice whether to exchange or repair a faulty product. So far this decision was with the consumer.
•If the Commission has its way, clauses, which are so disadvantageous that they are not admissible in accordance with current Austrian law, are not necessarily invalid. According to the Commission, the trader could argue in future that he had agreed the relevant clauses with the consumer.
•There would be no right of withdrawal for insurance contracts, which were concluded in a doorstep transaction.
•There would be no tailor-made information duties for the consumer as provided by Austrian law.
•In general, the Commission proposal would not permit to introduce or to retain better national consumer protection standards.
Both Council and European Parliament have sharply criticised the Commission proposal. Their criticism was not least based on the intensive awareness-raising activities of the consumer protection organisations, among them the European consumer protection organisation BEUC and the Chamber of Labour. This week now, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament voted on the about 1,600 amendments submitted by the MEPs.
Positive though are changes concerning so-called distance contracts (mail-order, online shopping, email orders): the withdrawal period for delivered goods will now be 14 days; so far it was only 7 days in Austria. If the value of a product exceeds € 40, the trader has to bear the return postage costs. Apart from that, companies dealing in distance selling now have to fulfil additional information duties, which contribute to the improved protection of the consumer.
However, in respect of off-premises contracts, the consumer protection standard would significantly deteriorate if the text would be adopted after the vote in the Committee of the European Parliament. The information duties of the trader towards the consumer were significantly relaxed. According to this, it would no longer be a requirement for example to provide the consumer with a written order confirmation for contracts concluded during a promotion trip or for a newspaper subscription to conclude the contract (the cancellation would only start with this confirmation). In case of digital contents, a subscription can no longer be cancelled one the product has been downloaded.
At the final vote, Social Democrats and Greens unanimously voted against the changed text. Evelyne Gebhardt, the MEP in charge of the Directive proposal with the Social Democrats explained the rejection by stating that it had been a condition for her fraction that there would be no deterioration for consumers. However, unfortunately this would not be the case. She observed that both doorstep transactions and financial services would not be covered by this Directive. The granting of microcredits would not be legally regulated; this would be a particular problem in the Scandinavian countries.
Rapporteur Andreas Schwab of the European People’s Party regarded the outcome of the vote as positive. The report would guarantee freedom in the internal market and consumer protection at the highest level. At last, there would be uniform regulations for online shopping; in his opinion, the agreed text does not represent any deterioration for the consumer.
The European Liberals and the European Conservative also regard the result as positive. Surprisingly the United Lefts voted as well in favour of the report. In contrast, the Green MEP Emilie Turunen criticised the result and sees little progress for the consumer.
The voting result in respect of the whole text: 22 votes for, 16 against. The rapporteur signalled his readiness to debate the main points of criticism of the Social Democrats. The plenary vote scheduled for March 2011 could therefore be much decisive, provided the main demands of the Social Democrats will be fulfilled.
However, something has already become very clear: the Commission has suffered an embarrassing rebuff concerning its proposal on consumer rights, which in many Member States would have resulted in a significant deterioration of consumer protection standards. Following the information provided by BEUC, Chamber of Labour and other consumer protection organisations, neither Council nor European Parliament could or would support the Commission proposal and have instead fundamentally changed the text of the Directive in favour of the consumer.
•In case of warranty it would now be the trader who had the choice whether to exchange or repair a faulty product. So far this decision was with the consumer.
•If the Commission has its way, clauses, which are so disadvantageous that they are not admissible in accordance with current Austrian law, are not necessarily invalid. According to the Commission, the trader could argue in future that he had agreed the relevant clauses with the consumer.
•There would be no right of withdrawal for insurance contracts, which were concluded in a doorstep transaction.
•There would be no tailor-made information duties for the consumer as provided by Austrian law.
•In general, the Commission proposal would not permit to introduce or to retain better national consumer protection standards.
Both Council and European Parliament have sharply criticised the Commission proposal. Their criticism was not least based on the intensive awareness-raising activities of the consumer protection organisations, among them the European consumer protection organisation BEUC and the Chamber of Labour. This week now, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament voted on the about 1,600 amendments submitted by the MEPs.
Positive though are changes concerning so-called distance contracts (mail-order, online shopping, email orders): the withdrawal period for delivered goods will now be 14 days; so far it was only 7 days in Austria. If the value of a product exceeds € 40, the trader has to bear the return postage costs. Apart from that, companies dealing in distance selling now have to fulfil additional information duties, which contribute to the improved protection of the consumer.
However, in respect of off-premises contracts, the consumer protection standard would significantly deteriorate if the text would be adopted after the vote in the Committee of the European Parliament. The information duties of the trader towards the consumer were significantly relaxed. According to this, it would no longer be a requirement for example to provide the consumer with a written order confirmation for contracts concluded during a promotion trip or for a newspaper subscription to conclude the contract (the cancellation would only start with this confirmation). In case of digital contents, a subscription can no longer be cancelled one the product has been downloaded.
At the final vote, Social Democrats and Greens unanimously voted against the changed text. Evelyne Gebhardt, the MEP in charge of the Directive proposal with the Social Democrats explained the rejection by stating that it had been a condition for her fraction that there would be no deterioration for consumers. However, unfortunately this would not be the case. She observed that both doorstep transactions and financial services would not be covered by this Directive. The granting of microcredits would not be legally regulated; this would be a particular problem in the Scandinavian countries.
Rapporteur Andreas Schwab of the European People’s Party regarded the outcome of the vote as positive. The report would guarantee freedom in the internal market and consumer protection at the highest level. At last, there would be uniform regulations for online shopping; in his opinion, the agreed text does not represent any deterioration for the consumer.
The European Liberals and the European Conservative also regard the result as positive. Surprisingly the United Lefts voted as well in favour of the report. In contrast, the Green MEP Emilie Turunen criticised the result and sees little progress for the consumer.
The voting result in respect of the whole text: 22 votes for, 16 against. The rapporteur signalled his readiness to debate the main points of criticism of the Social Democrats. The plenary vote scheduled for March 2011 could therefore be much decisive, provided the main demands of the Social Democrats will be fulfilled.
However, something has already become very clear: the Commission has suffered an embarrassing rebuff concerning its proposal on consumer rights, which in many Member States would have resulted in a significant deterioration of consumer protection standards. Following the information provided by BEUC, Chamber of Labour and other consumer protection organisations, neither Council nor European Parliament could or would support the Commission proposal and have instead fundamentally changed the text of the Directive in favour of the consumer.