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EU consumer law: New

Deal for Consumers

Background New EU Consumer Protection Rules for example, to insurance/financial intermediaries when to bring actions against infringing traders (such as insur-
being providers of online platforms/corporate website ance intermediaries). Such actions will seek to stop or pre-
offering (ancillary) insurance/financial services. vent illegal practices (injunction order) or to obtain com-
In April 2018, the European The Directive amending the four existing EU Directives on the protection of pensation for the harm caused (redress order).
Commission published a targeted consumer’s interests was approved by the members of the European Par-
liament in April 2019, following agreement with the Council of the EU. The Representative Action for the protection of Key points of the Commission’s proposal and the EP (JURI)
revision of European consumer
main objective of this reform is to update consumer rights for the internet collective interests of consumers Report are:
law, composed of two proposals for age by making the use of online marketplaces more transparent for con-
Directives: sumers. The amended Price Indication Directive and the Directive on Con- • This Directive should cover a variety of areas, includ-
- A proposal to amend the sumer Rights still do not apply to contracts for financial services, including The Directive on “representative actions for the protection ing financial services.
insurance contacts. The amended Unfair Commercial Practices Directive of the collective interests of consumers” in mass harm sit- • Representative actions aimed at protecting the col-
Directive on Unfair Contract Terms, the
(UCPD) and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive apply to financial services uations is still under examination by the EU co-legislators. lective interests of consumers can only be brought
Directive on consumer protection in insofar as there are no specific provisions in EU financial/insurance sec- The European Parliament has adopted its official position by qualified entities (QE), such as consumer organ-
the Price Indication of products offered tor legislation regulating unfair commercial practices. Where such sector- March 2019 and the Council of the EU has adopted its offi- isations and public bodies designated by Member
specific provisions do exist, they will take precedence over the general UCP cial position in November 2019. The European Parliamen, States, which should meet specific eligibility criteria.
to consumers, the Directive on Unfair
Directive. the Council and the Commission have started negotia- • The mandate of the consumers concerned is not
business-to-consumer Commercial tions with a view to exploring the possibility of an agree- required for the QEs to seek a court order establish-

Practices and the Directive on Under the new rules, online marketplaces, comparison tools and search ment for the adoption of the Directive (trilogue stage). ing the existence of the infringement and stopping/
Consumer Rights. engines (e.g. Amazon, eBay, AirBnb, Skyscanner) will have to disclose to the prohibiting the illegal practice (injunction order).
end consumers who buy products/services online: The aim of the Directive on “representative actions” is to • Member States have the possibility to decide wheth-
- A proposal on Representative
put in place an EU-wide enforcement system of Union law er or not the mandate of the consumers concerned
Actions for the protection of the • The main parameters determining how offers resulting from a search establishing obligations for the protection of consumers. is required before QEs seek a redress order (com-

Collective Interests of consumers query are ranked, including search results which contain “paid place- This system will enable the consumers represented col- pensation, price reduction, contract termination,
ments” or “paid inclusion”. lectively by a qualified entity, e.g. consumer association, etc.).
and repealing the Injunctions
• From whom consumers are buying goods or services, i.e. trader, the
Directive 2009/22/EC. The proposal online marketplace or private person.
extends the scope of this Directive • Information about whether and how the trader ensures that the pub-

to cover infringements of financial lished reviews of products/services originate from consumers who
have purchased or used the product/service.
and insurance services legislation,
including the IDD, MiFID, PRIIPs, Fines are introduced as a mandatory element of penalties for infringe-
Solvency II, and GDPR. ments of national provisions transposing these Directives. Such infringe-
ments now include aggressive or misleading marketing or selling practices
in the context of unsolicited visits to the consumer’s home or excursions.
The maximum fine for such infringements will be at least 4% of the trader’s
annual turnover in the Member State concerned.

It is important to clarify that this Directive governs the relationship between
traders/online platforms and end consumers who buy products and servic-
es online via a platform or a comparison website. This Directive does NOT
apply to the relationship between online platforms/marketplaces/search
engines and traders who are using such platforms in their professional
capacity to reach consumers. Transparency requirements with regard to
the main parameters of ranking for traders-business users of online inter-
mediation services are regulated by the Regulation on “promoting fairness
and transparency for business users of online intermediation services” (see
the article on digitalisation for more information). This Regulation applies,

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