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Pilot study on the Functioning of the National Judicial Systems for the Application of Consumer Protection Law Rules

Study on the Functioning of the National Judicial Systems for the Application of  Consumer Protection Law Rules – Multiple Framework Contract JUST/2011/EVAL/01. Final report submitted by the Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services (CSES)

The purpose of this pilot study, commissioned by the Directorate-General for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, was to:

  • collect data on the functioning of the national justice systems when applying EU
    consumer protection rules, namely in particular on the number of cases and their
    length;
  • gather qualitative feedback on the efficiency, quality and independence of the
    justice system for the application of EU consumer protection law rules;
    on the basis of the above, identify trends in practices and recurrent problems in the
    functioning of national justice systems for the application of EU consumer
    protection law rules in the different Member States.

In terms of scope, the study has covered the following EU consumer protection law rules: the Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts (“Unfair Contract Terms Directive”); the Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts (“Distance Sales Directive”); the Directive 99/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees (“Consumer Sales and Guarantee Directive”), Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Commercial Practices (“Unfair Commercial Practices Directive”) and their national implementing provisions. The study covers the situation in all 28 Member States.
Given the importance of the quantitative element of the study, and the short timeframe to collect the information, it was agreed at the initial stage of the pilot study that most of the efforts of the research team would focus on this element. The report contains a strong quantitative focus.

Final report

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