European Commission 8 October 2008, Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on consumer rights {SEC(2008) 2544} {SEC(2008) 2545} {SEC(2008) 2547}

Also known as

This Commission proposal (COM(2008) 614 final) presents a draft Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on consumer rights, grounded in Article 95 of the EC Treaty, which merges and repeals four existing consumer protection Directives (85/577/EEC, 93/13/EEC, 97/7/EC, and 1999/44/EC) into a single horizontal instrument adopting a full harmonisation approach, thereby prohibiting Member States from maintaining or introducing provisions diverging from its requirements. The Directive's key provisions establish uniform pre-contractual information obligations, a harmonised fourteen-day withdrawal right for distance and off-premises contracts, conformity and remedies rules for sales contracts, and two binding lists of unfair contract terms (terms considered unfair in all circumstances under Annex II, and terms presumed unfair under Annex III), with amendment of those lists reserved to a comitology procedure. The stated objectives are to reduce legal fragmentation across the internal market, lower compliance costs for cross-border traders, and achieve a high common level of consumer protection throughout all twenty-seven Member States.AI