European Commission 5 November 2020, COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EVALUATION of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreement for consumers

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This European Commission Staff Working Document presents the results of a REFIT evaluation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers, assessing its effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance, and EU added value across all Member States for the period 2008–2019. The evaluation finds that the Directive has partially achieved its dual objectives of ensuring a high level of consumer protection and fostering a well-functioning internal market for consumer credit, with key provisions on pre-contractual information (Standardised European Consumer Credit Information, SECCI), the Annual Percentage Rate of Charge (APR), rights of withdrawal and early repayment functioning broadly well, while creditworthiness assessment obligations have been implemented inconsistently across Member States and the cross-border consumer credit market has remained stagnant at approximately 0.9% of outstanding credit. The evaluation identifies significant shortcomings in the Directive's adaptation to digitalisation, responsible lending standards, and the scope of application—particularly regarding the EUR 200 lower threshold and exclusion of certain high-cost credit products—and concludes that a legislative review is warranted to address these gaps without undermining existing consumer protection standards.AI