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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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