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Overview
Consumer
& Competition Policy Directorate (CCP) is responsible for co-ordination of UK input
into European Union and other international fora, including OECD,
WTO and the UN, to protect consumers from dishonest trading practices
and unsafe products. This includes the negotiation, implementation
and review of EC legislation and EU policy on consumer protection
generally, including recent changes to the Treaty to ensure that
consumer protection requirements are taken into account in formulating
other community policies and activities.
European
Consumer Protection Directives
CCP is also
responsible for the regulations, implementation and revision of
European directives on consumer protection.
For information
on individual European Directives and their transposition into UK
law please follow the links below :- Commercial
Agents (86/653 EC), Consumer
Credit (90/88) Distance
Selling (97/7 EC), Doorstep
Selling (85/577 EEC), General
product Safety (92/59 EEC), Injunctions
– Stop Now Orders (98/27 EC), Misleading
and Comparative Advertising (84/450 EEC and 97/55 EC), Package
Travel (90/314 EEC), Price
Indications (98/6 EC), Product
Liability (99/34 EEC), Sale
of Goods and Associated Guarantees (99/44/EC), Sales
Promotions (proposed Regulation), Timeshare
(94/47 EC), Unfair
Contract Terms (93/13 EEC).
EU
Directive on Unfair Commercial Practice
July 2003
The UK Government has issued a
consultation paper on the draft EU Directive on Unfair Commercial
Practices. The Directive was adopted by the European Commission on
18 June 2003 and will be subject to the co-decision procedure, which
means that the European Parliament and Council will decide it
jointly.
The proposed Directive includes a
general prohibition on business-to-consumer unfair commercial
practices and specific rules aimed at combating misleading and
aggressive practices.
The DTI will be holding a
meeting on the afternoon of 6 October 2003 to consider the issues raised in the consultation document.
If you would like to register an interest to attend or if you have
any queries, please contact
us.
 Consultation document.
Directive on Unfair Commercial
Practices.
The UK Government consultation will end on
17 October
2003.
In addition to the consultation
document, the Government is also publishing two further documents to
help set the Directive in a UK context - a Report on a Workshop on
the evidence for a 'general duty not to trade unfairly' and a legal
study on "The Impact of Adopting a Duty to Trade Fairly".
The DTI organised a workshop on 11
April 2003 to consider the evidence of the need for a 'general duty
not to trade unfairly'. The workshop involved Trading Standards
officers, the Office of Fair Trading, and Citizens Advice Bureaux
and considered the problems with current law and its enforcement and
what would need to be included in a Directive to make it work
successfully in the UK.
Report of the
Workshop (21 pages).
The Department has also
commissioned a study by leading academics to consider how concepts
of fair trading are currently used in English law and the potential
impact of an explicit 'general duty to trade fairly.' The Report
broadly concludes that the Directive will have a considerable impact
on the structure of English law but that courts already apply
general principles of fair trading and that the application of
general rules has not hitherto proven problematic for courts or
business.
Report
Executive Summary (5 pages).
Full
Report (122 pages).
December
2002
European Commission publish all
responses to the consultation on the follow-up communication to
the Green paper on Consumer Protection
October
2002
Summary of the UK Government’s response to the follow up communication based on the views received
from stakeholders.
• The UK Government welcomes the further detailed examination
underway but maintains its reserve of principle as to the need for
new legislation in this area. We encourage the Commission to
prioritise the development of a robust evidence base and the
preparation of an extended impact assessment before any possible
legislative proposal.
• The scope of any proposal should be focused on key problem
areas; it should
- be limited to collective interests of consumers rather than
individual cases.
- Concentrate in the first instance on Business-to-Consumer
transactions. the case for covering Business-to-Business
transactions should be considered separately.
- deal only with protecting the economic interests of
consumers; it should not cover ethical or moral issues like taste
or decency.
• Any Directive in this area should be maximum harmonisation:
existing national fair trading laws should be brought into line.
• Any proposal should be directed at “unfair” practices,
with clear guidance for business and consumers on interpretation,
starting with an agreed grey list on the model of the Directive on
Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts.
• The Commission should drop its ideas on detailed rules on
complaints handling and after sales service, which interfere with
the operation of the market.
• If a framework Directive is brought forward, review and
simplification of existing Directives should be pursued in parallel
and/or according to an agreed timetable.
• The Commission should re-consider its current proposals on
codes of practice, which seem unnecessary and unworkable in their
present state. The development of self-regulation across the EU
should be pursued separately to the proposal for a framework
Directive.
Full UK response
(182Kb).
Expert Group
The Commission set up an Expert Group on the Green Paper, comprised of members from
individual national authorities (including the DTI on behalf of the
UK), to :-
- exchange
views between the Commission and Member States;
- identify
existing barriers to cross border trade;
- compare
concepts of fair commercial practices in Member States;
- consider the
issues to be addressed by any framework directive and the level
of harmonisation necessary in order to apply the principles of
mutual recognition and country of origin;
- provide
detailed analysis and options for future measures which will be
used as the basis for any future consultation.
Link to
archive of Expert Group papers.
June 2002
The
Commission publishes its summary of responses to the Green Paper
including
a ‘working document’’ on the possible elements of a framework
directive. The Commission now plans extensive consultation on the
details of this framework directive and has asked for responses to
their proposals by 30 September 2002.
January 2002
Summary of the
UK Government’s response to the Green Paper based on the views
received from a wide range of stakeholders.
The UK
Government welcomes the overall objective of simplifying and
harmonising existing consumer protection legislation, and would also
like to see improvements to consumer education and information to
complement this important task. It fully supports the
Commission’s objective of encouraging self-regulation across the
EU and would like to share some of the UK experience in taking
forward this resource intensive and challenging agenda.
The UK
Government would welcome more work and research on the problems
presented by the current regime in terms of gaps in protection, the
nature and extent of unfair practices, and internal market barriers.
It would also welcome more detail on how a framework directive and
other alternative approaches, such as improvement of the current
regime, would operate in a way that improves legal certainty across
the Community and reduces internal market barriers. The UK
Government would also like to see a commitment that any new
legislation will be accompanied by simplification of existing
legislation.
The
UK Government strongly supports the Commission’s proposals on
improving enforcement co-operation and would like to see the
Commission come forward with a work programme in this area as soon
as possible.
(137
Kb) Full UK Government response.
October
2001
The
European Commission publishes a Green Paper on the future direction
of EU consumer protection.
The Commission's Green
Paper.
Commission's Consumer Policy Strategy
On
7 May 2002 the Commission set out its strategy for consumer policy
at European level for the next five years with three mid-term
objectives :-
- a
high level of consumer protection;
- effective
enforcement of consumer protection rules;
- involvement
of consumer organisations in EU policies.
Consumer policy strategy
2002-2006
Consumer
Committee
The
Consumer Committee was set up by the European Commission and may be
consulted on all matters relating to the protection of consumer
interests at Community level.
For
more information on the Consumer Committee including its composition
please see:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/committee/index_en.html
Internal
Market Council, Consumers and Tourism (IMCTC)
Melanie
Johnson, Minister for Consumer Affairs, attends the meetings of the
IMCTC where a number of consumer issues are discussed. The most
recent meeting took place on 30 September 2002.
Report of IMCTC meeting
of 21 May 2002
European
Community Consumer Funding
The
European Community provides funding for projects to promote the
interests of consumers. There are 2 types of funding:
List
of projects selected for funding in 2001.
European
Consumer Infocentres (Euroguichet)
The
European Commission is contributing funding towards a UK Euroguichet
information service to consumers on cross-border purchasing.
This new service helps consumers by providing
information
on cross-border shopping in the European Union, and by advising
them in the event of problems. The
service is fully operational and is provided through the existing
network of Citizens Advice
Bureaux, which are already familiar to
consumers.
The
UK Euroguichet service is unique in Europe in that it is delivered
via a decentralized
service network throughout the country, rather than from a single
site. This decentralized network makes the advice and information
readily accessible to consumers.
You
will find further information about Euroguichet on this EC web
site:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/euroguichets/index_en.htm
EC Consumer Organisations
Consumer and
Competition Policy Directorate also deals with European Consumer
Organisations on a regular basis.
Association of European
Consumers (AEC)
The AEC promotes via research, analysis and exchange of
information, the general interests of consumers in the internal
market.
European Association for the
Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation (ANEC)
ANEC represents the interests of consumers on European
Standardisation policies.
Bureau
Europeen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC)
BEUC is the representative
organisation of independent national consumer associations in
Europe.
Links to other National
Consumer Organisations
DTI Contacts
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