Transcript Law Enforcement in the EU Tamás Molnár The European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumers [email protected] ODR Conference Vienna.

Law Enforcement in the EU
Tamás Molnár
The European Commission
Directorate General for Health and Consumers
[email protected]
ODR Conference
Vienna. / 29-30 March 2010
YES*
*NO
Proportion
of
consumers
that
complaines
(2005 Feb +12 months)
Source: Special
Eurobarometer:
Consumer
Protection in the
Internal Market,
June 2006 (p31)
The last decade is a success story in the
EU – New laws
New horizontal legislations
E-commerce Directive
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive
The European Small Claims Regulation
New sectoral legislations
Air Services Regulation
The last decade is a success story in the EU
– Dispute Resolution
Individual complaints/claims
European Consumer Centres (60.000+ cases/year)
ADR Recommendations / Hundreds of schemes
500.000 ADR cases in 2008 (+25% over 2006)
European Small Claims procedure
Collective Redress
Currently evaluated
CPC Enforcement cooperation
To defend the collective interest of
consumers (no redress/individual)
Only cross border practices
Network of national enforcement authorities
(300)
1.500 participants
30 countries
How the network operates
Day-to-day business
Alerts (216)
Investigations (490)
Measure taking to stop infringing practices (525)
Plan activities in advance
(Annual Enforcement Action Plans)
Sweeps
Common activities
Exchange of officials
Workshops
New forms of cooperation (Expert groups)
Applicable Directive(Enforcement requests – since Dec 2006)
Nbr of cases
Council Directive 84/450/EEC misleading advertising
33
Council Directive 85/577/EEC contracts negotiated away from business premises
8
Council Directive 90/314/EEC package travel, package holiday and package tours
1
Council Directive 93/13/EEC unfair terms in consumer contracts
41
Directive 1999/44/EC sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees
17
Directive 2000/31/EC electronic commerce
119
Directive 2001/83/EC medicinal products for human use
13
Directive 2002/65/EC distance marketing of consumer financial services
3
Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Commercial Practices
Directive 97/55/EC
misleading advertising so as to include comparative advertising
Directive 97/7/EC
Directive 98/6/EC
195
distance contracts
3
68
indication of prices
10
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 denied boarding and cancellation or long delay of flights
Sum:
14
525
2009 SWEEP on electronic goods
28 CPC members participated in the 1st phase
369 websites were checked altogether
206 (56%) websites require further investigation:
176 national cases
30 CPC cases, out of which 2 coordination cases
The great majority of MS checked between 10 – 20
websites
Mystery shopping exercise
Detected potential breaches
Most frequent irregularities found in the 2009 Sweep:
Inaccurate info concerning buyers rights, e.g. right of
withdrawal, right to the legal guarantee: 131 websites (36%
of total number of websites checked)
Incomplete info about the total cost: 96 websites (25%)
Missing contact details of the trader: 65 websites (18%)
No information on extra delivery cost where it could be
calculated in advance: 30 websites (8%)
European Consumer Centres Network
THE ECC Network
A one-stop shop network to assist consumers experiencing
problems with cross- border transactions in the Internal Market
Rights / Language / Advise
No representation before courts!
27 Member States, plus Norway and Iceland
60.000 + contacts with consumers a year
Average claim: 560 Euro
BUT only 1% goes to ADR systems
Information / Language / Cost / Compliance by business
Regulation 861/2007 - The European
Small Claims procedure
Civil and commercial cross border matters
The value of a claim < 2000 €.
The procedure applies to pecuniary claims as well as to nonpecuniary claims.
Simplifications:
Written procedure: standard forms to be used
Time limits for the parties and for the court – less than 4
months
The court may hold a hearing or take evidence through a
video conference or other communications technology if the
technical means are available.
No legal representation is required - evidence through
written statements of witnesses, experts or parties.
Regulation 861/2007 - The European
Small Claims procedure
The unsuccessful party shall bear the costs of the
proceedings.
However, the court shall not award costs to the
successful party to the extent that they were
unnecessarily incurred or disproportionate to the claim.
The judgment shall be enforceable notwithstanding any
possible appeal. The provision of a security shall not be
required.
The Regulation abolishes the intermediate measures to
enable the recognition and enforcement of a judgement.
A judgment shall be recognised and enforced in another
Member State automatically and without any possibility
of opposing its recognition.
Thank you!