Environment and Consumer

Unfair Commercial Practices

The European Parliament has recently been debating the provisions of a directive concerning unfair business to consumer commercial practices in the internal market.

This will introduce a general duty on traders to trade fairly and will strengthen cross-border consumer protection. In the past some rogue traders have deliberately set out to exploit loopholes between national regulatory systems and consumers' uncertainty of not knowing what protection is provided by other EU countries' law has hampered the development of cross-border shopping.

The Environment and Consumer Affairs Committee has gave its opinion (on 21st January 2004) on the proposals, which included a number of amendments by John Bowis to clarify the text of the proposals, for example, to allow codes of conduct to work effectively before authorities take enforcement action against repeat offenders and to prohibit traders from using the misfortune of a consumer to influence the consumer's decision without inadvertently outlawing undertakers from making sales to bereaved customers.

The Conservatives in the European Parliament have advocated a well-defined, proportionate and practical directive affording improved consumer protection without creating an additional tier of regulation.