Further to the recently concluded Fitness Check of consumer and marketing law and evaluation of the Consumer Rights Directive, the Commission is seeking stakeholders’ views on possible targeted legislative changes in some key EU consumer law directives. The evidence gathered during these assessments points to the following areas where legislative changes may be necessary to further fine-tune the cross-cutting consumer law body:
- providing more transparency on whom consumers conclude contracts with when buying on online platforms (online marketplaces) and whether EU consumer rights are applicable to such contracts
- extension of some consumer rights to contracts for online services where consumers provide data instead of paying with money
- individual redress/remedies for consumers harmed by unfair commercial practices, for example misleading green claims
- more proportionate, effective and deterrent financial penalties to tackle breaches of consumer laws
- simplification of some rules and requirements
The present consultation seeks stakeholders’ views on the possible legislative changes listed above.
The Commission also takes this opportunity to seek stakeholders’ views on certain issues related to national rules banning doorstep selling.
The Fitness Check report also concluded on the need to consider changes to the rules on misleading and comparative advertising in business-to-business (B2B) relations. The findings of the Fitness Check will therefore inform future action in the area of B2B relations (notably on platform-to-business relations) within the Digital Single Market context – which is hence not covered by the present public consultation.
Moreover, a possible revision of the Injunctions Directive as suggested by the Fitness Check is closely linked to the evaluation of the 2013 Recommendation on collective redress. It will therefore be assessed at a later stage, and falls outside the scope of the present public consultation.
