March 06, 2020 / By mobanmarket
Now that revised consumer laws have entered into force, the Commission’s priority is to make sure they are actually enforced.Commission clamps down on online scams
Revised consumer rights came into force across the European Union on Friday (13 June), giving citizens a 14-day ‘cooling off’ period to change their mind after making an online purchase, and banning exorbitant credit-card fees for online purchases. The rules stem from a directive adopted by the European Union in October 2011, focused on improving consumer protection online, partly to counter harsh internet practices, but also to bolster consumer confidence in the e-economy.
BEUC, the European consumers’ organisation, greeted the new measure as a cure for “many everyday consumer headaches to do with dodgy online business practices.” Monique Goyens, BEUC’s director-general, said: “Pre-ticked boxes on websites and exorbitantly expensive customer hotlines, so often tricky ‘cost trapdoors’, will be banned.”
Regular internet users will have noticed that leading e-commerce websites have already improved the transparency of their charges or their terms and conditions, as a result of the early implementation of EU law in some member states or in anticipation of the changes. Only Bulgaria and Poland have not fully implemented the law, although a draft law is before Poland’s parliament.
But implementation does not guarantee the law will be enforced. The EU writes over 80% of Europe’s consumer laws, and making sure that member states implement them is firmly within the remit of the Commission. However, it is national authorities that are responsible for making sure that the rules are enforced, and the tension between the two competences threatens to grow.
As much is recognised by Neven Mimica, the European commissioner for consumer affairs. “Enforcement actions will be a priority for consumer policy,” he told journalists last week. The Commission’s role in enforcing consumer law is at present restricted to co-ordination. It directed a pan-European “sweep” of 552 travel websites in 2013, which revealed that 382 of them were not respecting EU consumer law. A follow-up one year later revealed that more than half were in compliance – an improvement, but still leaving 209 non-compliant websites over which the Commission has little leverage.
The gap has real consequences. Commission research shows that only 56% of consumers feel comfortable making transactions online – and even fewer (just 36%) feel safe making cross-border transactions online.
This lack of confidence is a drag on growth in the online sector. Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, said on Friday that improving consumer “confidence [online] is the cheapest stimulus package that Europe can put in place.”
The Commission may acquire greater powers to enforce consumer law. A long-awaited report by the consumer-protection co-operation (CPC) network, which groups together national consumer authorities and the Commission, is expected to recommend that the Commission’s role in co-ordinating enforcement be re-inforced.
The Commission is expected within the next month to assert the powers it currently possesses, when it agrees – with Google and Apple, among others, and the CPC network – the first voluntary commitments under EU consumer law. Under the commitment, the app industry, ranging from hotel booking apps to virtual reality games, would bring greater transparency to charges. This will be a relief to any parents whose children have racked up enormous bills on their phones or tablets, and to multinationals that have to contend with a plethora of national rules and codes of conduct.
Finalisation of the commitments will allow Mimica more time to focus on the controversial product-safety directive, which was proposed jointly with the directorate general for industry. The proposal has been blocked by member states because of a provision that would require consumer products to carry a label indicating their country of origin. The Commission, supported by France, Italy and other southern member states, argues that this would increase the traceability of products. An alliance built around Germany and the UK, whose industries are more globalised, oppose the provision.
The game-changer may be Italy’s assumption on 1 July of the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of Ministers. This will hand Italy, for whom ‘made in’ labels are a priority issue, control over the EU’s coming legislative agenda.
In addition, the Commission is expected to come forward with a new regulation on fragrances, banning and limiting certain ingredients that give rise to allergies, and imposing labelling requirements. Around 70% of fragrances could be affected by the new rules, according to Mimica, including some of the world’s leading luxury brands – which are resistant to obligations to list their ingredients on their designer bottles. The proposal is expected for the end of the year or the start of 2015 – by which time Mimica may no longer be in charge of consumer affairs. Croatia is expected to re-nominate him as the country’s commissioner, but it is unusual for a commissioner to hold the same dossier across mandates.
Click Here: Putters
Categories: News