# EUR-Lex - 52012DC0225 - EN

*|*

# 52012DC0225

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS A European Consumer Agenda - Boosting confidence and growth /* COM/2012/0225 final */**

			*

			*

1. Consumer policy as an essential contribution to Europe 2020

Consumer expenditure accounts for 56 % of EU GDP and is
essential to meeting the Europe 2020 objective of smart, inclusive and
sustainable growth. Stimulating this demand can play a major role in bringing
the EU out of the crisis.

To make this possible, the potential of the Single Market must be
realised. Data show that consumers shopping online across the EU have up to 16
times more products from which to choose, but 60 % of consumers do not yet
use this retail channel. As a result of this reluctance, they do not fully
benefit from the variety of choice and price differences available in the
Single Market. Improving consumer confidence in cross-border shopping online by
taking appropriate policy action could provide a major boost to economic growth
in Europe. Empowered and confident consumers can drive forward the European
economy.

Well designed and implemented consumer policies with a
European dimension can enable consumers to make informed choices that reward
competition, and support the goal of sustainable and resource-efficient growth,
whilst taking account of the needs of all consumers.

This European Consumer Agenda identifies the key measures needed now
to empower consumers and boost their trust. It sets out measures to put consumers
at the heart of all EU policies as means to achieve the Europe 2020 goals.[1] It builds on and complements other
initiatives, such as the EU Citizenship Report, the Single Market Act, the
Digital Agenda for Europe, the E-commerce Communication and the Resource
Efficiency Roadmap.[2]
In the field of research and innovation, it draws on initiatives under Horizon
2020 to deepen scientific understanding of consumer behaviour and the health,
safety and sustainability aspects of the choices they face.[3]

Empowering consumers means providing a robust framework of
principles and tools that enable them to drive a smart, sustainable and
inclusive economy. Empowered consumers who can rely on a robust framework
ensuring their safety, information, education, rights, means of redress and
enforcement, can actively participate in the market and make it work for them
by exercising their power of choice and by having their rights properly
enforced.

In line with the Treaty (Article 12 TFEU) and the
Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 38), the Agenda develops a systematic
approach to integrating consumer interests into all relevant policies and puts
a special emphasis on tackling problems faced by today’s consumers in the food
chain, energy, transport, digital and financial services sectors.[4] It builds on the high level of
consumer protection already achieved and the progress made in creating a
European Area of Justice[5]
by enhancing the role that judges, legal practitioners and enforcement
authorities can play, including across borders.

2. Building on strong EU consumer protection rules

Over the past 50 years, the
European Union has put in place a robust set of policies and rules to provide a
high level of protection for EU consumers and to enable them to benefit from
the social and economic progress Europe and its internal market have achieved.
This includes an overarching product safety policy and legislation which
prevents unsafe products reaching consumers, and promotes the high quality of
European exports. Strong consumer law sets an EU-wide framework to
combat unfair commercial practice, unfair contract terms and misleading
advertising, both in domestic and cross-border situations, whilst securing consumers’
right to withdraw from contracts and seek adequate redress. The recently
adopted Consumer Rights Directive has substantially strengthened
consumer rights, in particular by harmonising a number of rules applicable to online
contracts. Timely and efficient implementation and enforcement of these new
rules is essential. The Services Directive ensures that consumers cannot
be discriminated against by traders on mere grounds of nationality or residence.
Competition rules are crucial in allowing the EU to crack down on abuses of
dominant position, cartels and concerted practices to the detriment of
consumers. In individual sectors of particular interest to consumers, the EU
has also developed a wide range of key rights. For example, EU passenger
rights now entitle travellers to quality air, rail, road and maritime travel
services when moving within the EU. The EU’s roaming caps have brought
down unfair costs for consumers by more than 70 % and the telecom package
enables consumers to switch fixed or mobile phone operators easily. Legislation
on the provision of food information to consumers and the regulation of nutrition
and health claims made in relation to food provide a high level of consumer
protection and enable consumers to make informed choices.

Recent initiatives include the
‘Quality Package’,[6]
adopted by the Commission in 2010, which aims to improve information for
consumers on food quality through a comprehensive policy on certification
schemes, value-adding terms, and standards for agricultural products. In July
2011 a revised Roaming Regulation[7]
was tabled, to allow consumers to easily switch to an alternative provider for
roaming services. It also introduces a new retail price cap for data roaming
alongside those already in place. In October 2011, the Commission proposed a
Common European Sales Law[8]
to overcome barriers resulting from divergent contract laws: a single and
comprehensive set of rules for sales contracts as well as for contracts governing
digital content, which businesses and consumers can voluntarily choose to apply.
By using it, consumers would benefit from greater certainty about their rights,
for example, when purchasing on the internet. They would also be able to access
a wider range of products and digital content at lower prices across borders. Proposals
were tabled in November 2011 on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Online
Dispute Resolution (ODR)[9]
to make available to all consumers this quicker and inexpensive way to resolve
disputes with traders. The dedicated European platform for online dispute resolution
would aim to improve consumer confidence in cross-border e-commerce. The proposed
Data Protection Reform package[10]
adopted by the Commission in January 2012 will reinforce the current EU data
protection framework by strengthening consumers’ data protection rights in
order to increase their trust in the Digital Single Market and in cross-border
services.

The subsequent review of the Directive
on Deposit Guarantee Schemes in July 2010 strengthened the funding of
Deposit Guarantee Schemes and introduced several consumer-friendly provisions.
In July 2010, the Commission also proposed a review of the Directive on Investor
Compensation Schemes with the aim of strengthening last resort protection
offered to investors when, often due to fraud, providers are unable to return
assets to them.

Last but not least, the
Commission proposals to review the Markets in financial instruments
Directive, from October 2011, provides protection to consumers-investors by
imposing requirements on financial institutions and strengthening conduct of
business rules.

3. Current
problems and future challenges

Despite the high level of consumer protection already achieved in
the EU, the situation on the ground for EU consumers can still be improved. A
number of new challenges have emerged, in particular as a result of new
developments in technology, unsustainable patterns of consumption or social exclusion.
These challenges also create new opportunities.

3.1          Challenges regarding product, service and food safety

Ensuring that products, services and food are safe is a basic
objective of any consumer policy. But there are differences between Member
States in enforcing product safety legislation and, at a time when national
administrations responsible for market surveillance face resource constraints,
the whole enforcement network is struggling to do more with less.

At the same time, globalisation of the production chain continues
(for example, an increasing proportion of consumer products, including 85 %
of all toys bought in the European Union, are now produced in China). This
makes the detection of unsafe products a significant challenge.

The economic crisis means that consumers and businesses focus
predominantly on price, with the risk that safety considerations lose
importance and the space for counterfeiting products increases. Market
surveillance authorities must maintain vigilant and renewed efforts are
required, through the cooperation of national authorities and of law
enforcement agencies, inside and outside the EU.

With the increased importance of consumer services, and a growing
cross-border take-up of some of these services in the Single Market, the
question of their safety must be addressed in greater depth to ensure that
consumers enjoy the same, high level of safety throughout the internal market
and to assess the added value of action at EU level.

Europe has already achieved an impressive record on
food safety but this policy area needs constant adjustment as new scientific
evidence comes to light.

3.2          Economic and societal change

·
The digital revolution

The internet has fundamentally changed the way consumers
shop and businesses advertise and sell their goods and services. It has created
innovative ways of organising, accessing, sharing and evaluating information,
for example on prices, technical product characteristics and quality reviews.
Search engines, price and product comparison websites, online trust marks and
consumer reviews are now widely used tools and are becoming embedded in
consumer behaviour and business models. E-commerce can deliver considerable
welfare gains since consumers have at least twice the choice when shopping
online rather than offline. Cloud computing in particular can offer more
flexible services that are device or platform independent. It has been calculated
that, if e-commerce in goods reaches 15 % of retail sales and all Single
Market barriers are removed, the overall gain for consumers would be around EUR
204 billion (1.7 % of EU GDP).[11]

·
Sustainable consumption

Rising consumption around the globe has increased
pressure on the environment, including climate change, and created greater
competition for resources.[12]
Increasingly, consumers are aware of the environmental impacts of their
consumption patterns, and they should be encouraged and supported by private
and public initiatives to adopt more sustainable consumption behaviour. Consumers
should be empowered, assisted and encouraged to make sustainable and healthy choices
which will lead to cost savings for themselves and for society as a whole. Consumers
have the right to know the environmental impacts throughout the life-cycle of
the products (goods and services) they intend to buy. Consumers should be supported
in easily identifying the truly sustainable choice. Effective tools are needed
to protect them against misleading and unfounded environmental and health claims.

Consumer demand for sustainable products can drive
growth and competition, thereby increasing the availability and affordability
of such products and rewarding businesses that provide quality goods and
services with lower environmental footprints.

Social exclusion, vulnerable consumers and
  accessibility

Wherever the economic and sovereign debt crisis has struck, it has dented
consumer confidence and, for some consumers, led to a very significant fall in
income or purchasing power, thus increasing the risk of
social exclusion and the risk that citizens are unable to afford essential
goods and services.

These risks are heightened by the fact that our population
is ageing, markets are becoming increasingly complex and some people may
neither have the opportunity nor the ability to master the digital environment.
The question of accessibility is key to reaping the benefits of digital change
in the physical, digital and economic senses. The current context may also
exacerbate the disadvantaged situation of vulnerable consumers, such as people
with disabilities or with reduced mobility, who face difficulties in accessing and
understanding information and in finding appropriate products and services on the
market.

3.3          Information overload — knowledge deficit

In today’s fast changing world, consumers are often overloaded with
information but they do not necessarily always have the information they need.

Faced with increasingly complex information and choices, consumers more
and more often rely on labels or turn to intermediaries and filters such as
comparison websites. There is cause for some concern as to their reliability
and accuracy, however.

Consumer organisations play an essential role in improving consumer
information and knowledge, but their situation varies enormously between Member
States. Those operating at national level, in particular, often lack resources
and expertise, and their role in channelling and filtering consumer concerns is
not always properly recognised.

The Empowerment Survey published in 2011[13] showed that one in four
European consumers does not feel confident and more than one in three does not
feel knowledgeable. Only 2 % could correctly answer questions on their
rights of withdrawal, guarantees and protection from unfair commercial
practices. This lack of awareness undermines the ability of consumers to uphold
their rights.

3.4          Rights not fully respected in practice

In 2010, more than one in five Europeans encountered a problem with a
product or service for which they thought they had cause for complaint. It was
estimated that the total detriment European consumers incurred from problems
amounted to about 0.4 % of EU GDP.[14]

Despite a generally high level of consumer protection guaranteed by EU
legislation, problems encountered by consumers are still too often left
unresolved. The 2011 retailer Eurobarometer survey found that only 26 % of
retailers know the exact period during which consumers have the right to return
a defective product.

Many problems consumers face with traders are not remedied, simply
because the consumer does not take action. The Consumer Empowerment survey
showed that, of those consumers who experienced problems, only 16 % contacted
consumer organisations or public authorities to resolve them. In most cases,
consumers do not consider going to court if an initial contact with the trader
has proved unsuccessful, in particular if the sums involved are small.

Moreover, enforcement authorities face new practical
challenges such as resource constraints, which hamper their effectiveness,[15] especially in cross-border
situations. The Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) network set up in
December 2006 to address the problems posed by cross-border shopping has still
to reach its full potential.

Redress and enforcement mechanisms need to be further improved.
Increasing confidence and ensuring that unfair trading practices do not bring a
competitive advantage will also have a positive impact in terms of stimulating
growth.

3.5          Specific challenges in key sectors

Some sectors are of particular importance in times of economic
crisis since they affect the basic interests of all consumers in essential
goods and services, such as food, energy, transport, electronic communications
and financial services. Account needs to be taken of how the economic and
societal changes mentioned above impact on these sectors.

The EU needs to pay close attention to the way consumers understand
and choose financial services today. Whilst technology such as home banking
makes life easier for many consumers, the increased complexity and risks of
some financial products and services (including
pensions) demands a higher level of transparency and financial literacy.
Fees for basic financial services are generally still opaque and consumers are
still discouraged from switching banks because of their (often justified) fear
that it will be burdensome.

Too often consumers fail to reap the full benefits of the
liberalisation of network industries, such as energy, transport and electronic
communications, in terms not only of prices but also of quality of service
levels.

In particular, liberalisation of the transport sector has increased
competition to the benefit of the rising number of travelling citizens across Europe. But better enforcement of EU passenger rights legislation is needed to combat unfair
practices and violations of EU law. The decisive way in which the digital
revolution has impacted the travel sector means that it is important to make
consumer rights better fit for purpose.

The electricity and gas retail markets were recently liberalised, but
many consumers still find comparisons difficult due to complicated procedures
and/or opaque market conditions.[16]

With regard to energy saving, it has been calculated that, on
average, EU households could save up to EUR 1 000 per year by taking
simple energy efficiency measures, such as insulating homes, installing thermostats
and solar panels to heat water, double glazing for windows and replacing old
heating systems.[17]
Therefore households have significant potential for cost-effective energy
efficiency improvement and savings in final energy consumption. This potential
is far from being fully exploited, mainly due to the lack of knowledge among
consumers about their own actual consumption, and the lack of clear and
easy-to-access metering and billing information.

Although the markets in electronic communications have proved to be
resilient to the economic crisis, consumers are not taking full advantage of
competition, due to insufficient transparency of tariffs, low quality of
services and obstacles to switching.

Overall environmental pressure from food consumption is expected to further
increase in the future due, for example, to changing dietary patterns and increased
food waste. Food waste in Europe is expected to rise in the coming years,[18] but wasting food means wasting
resources and money.

4. Four key 2020 objectives and
first steps to achieve them

The challenges described above warrant a long-term strategy
as well as a mix of short-term measures addressing key citizens’ concerns, to
boost trust and growth and to support the Europe 2020 Strategy. The actions set
out in the following sections will of course be subject to the scrutiny of
smart regulation and the Commission’s overall policy prioritisation — including
ensuring that any burdens for small and medium-sized companies are rigorously
analysed.

4. 1. Improving
consumer safety

Ensuring that products,
services and food are safe is a basic objective of consumer policy.

The aim of an effective
product safety policy is to create a seamless safety net from the farm or the factory
to the front door. By improving its product safety governance system, the EU
will be better able to tackle the challenges of global supply chains,
communicate effectively and address newly emerging product safety risks more
quickly and effectively.

As consumers more
frequently use services across borders, the question of whether their safety
should be addressed at EU level or through national level regulations merits
further examination.

The EU system of
official controls along the food chain should be made even more efficient. This
will allow the Member States, responsible for performing such controls, to maximise
added value, while minimising burdens for operators.

To meet the goal of strengthening
consumer safety, the Commission will work towards the following two specific
objectives:

Ø 1. improving the regulatory framework on product and service safety
and enhancing the market surveillance framework;

Ø 2. reinforcing safety in the food chain.

A number of concrete
steps will be taken before 2014 to achieve these specific objectives.

The revision of the legislative
framework on product safety scheduled for 2012 seeks to ensure that the EU and
its 500 million consumers can count on modern, unified rules on market
surveillance, leading to better domestic and cross-border enforcement thanks to
improved planning, cooperation, prioritisation and information sharing between Member State authorities. Businesses will benefit too, as they will be able to count on rules
that are easier to apply and have lower compliance costs. The revised framework
will also seek to identify ways to strengthen cooperation among national enforcement
authorities at EU level creating a level playing field and countering unfair
competition.

Outreach actions will
be carried out, especially in countries exporting to the EU, to raise awareness
of safety and knowledge of EU regulations throughout the supply chain.

The Commission will consider taking initiatives on services safety
in selected sectors, including those important for some categories of
vulnerable consumers. A Green Paper on the safety of certain consumer
services will be discussed in 2012 and a revised recommendation on hotel
fire safety will be put on the agenda in 2013 to take account of the new
approach to risk assessment and management proposed by the industry.

The Regulation on Official
Controls along the Food Chain will be reviewed in 2012 with a view to simplifying
it and ensuring that sufficient and sustainable funding is available to conduct
more controls. Furthermore, the Commission will strengthen and update the legal
framework governing Animal Health, Plant Health, Plant Reproductive Materials
and the Food Hygiene Regulation, in particular by improving coherence and
clarifying the responsibilities of business operators. This will improve food
safety for consumers.

Based on the Guidelines
for import controls in the area of product safety and compliance,[19] customs and market
surveillance authorities will cooperate in improving, measuring and evaluating
the results of import controls by 2014.

4. 2.     Enhancing
knowledge

If they are to be properly empowered, consumers must be provided
with clear, reliable and comparable information, and the tools to understand
it.

Both consumers and traders should also be made better aware of their
EU rights and obligations, to boost mutual trust and to find easy ways to a
solution when something goes wrong. Therefore, the Commission will work with intermediaries
and traders to encourage them to move beyond mere compliance with legislation
and to develop self-regulatory measures, as well as corporate
social responsibility initiatives, thus enhancing their focus on customer
service as a key competitiveness factor.

Improving consumer knowledge is particularly important in financial
services, where there is an active role for institutions like banks, central
banks, financial market supervisory authorities, deposit and investor protection
schemes in raising financial literacy, including for those who remain outside
the banking and financial mainstream (known as the ‘unbanked’ and ‘underbanked’).

Awareness-raising campaigns will be organised with Member States and stakeholders on key consumer issues. It is also essential that national
authorities and private-sector organisations enhance education offer for
consumers throughout the EU from a young age.

Consumer organisations have an important role to play, not
only in informing and raising the awareness of consumers, but also in
effectively representing and defending them.

The Commission will
work towards the following two specific objectives:

Ø 3. improving information and raising awareness of consumer rights
and interests among both consumers and traders;

Ø 4. building knowledge and capacity for more effective consumer participation
in the market.

A number of concrete
steps will be taken before 2014 to achieve these specific objectives.

In 2013, as part of the European Year of Citizens, an EU-wide
campaign to increase knowledge about consumer rights and interests will be
launched in close cooperation with all stakeholders, including businesses and
consumer associations.

Non-profit organisations that provide general financial advice to
consumers will receive specific training between the second quarter of 2012 and
December 2013 to improve their ability to provide advice effectively and
sustainably.

The Commission will work with Member States
to ensure that the role of national consumer organisations is properly
recognised and will support them by capacity building and providing assistance
to European consumer organisations.

Work will be stepped up with all the existing
EU-wide networks that can best disseminate information to consumers,
traders or legal practitioners. The European Consumer Centres’ Network
will be strengthened to better inform consumers about their rights when
shopping cross-border and assist them when they become entangled in
cross-border disputes. The Enterprise Europe Network will be more
regularly used to ensure that information on consumer legislation is regularly
provided to businesses, including SMEs.

The Commission will work with intermediaries and
traders with a view to developing codes of good conduct, good practices or guidelines
for price, quality and sustainability comparison.

The Commission will also continuously improve the information given
to consumers and businesses on their rights and duties through its own web pages,
such as the YourEurope portal,[20]
complemented by specialised information tools as the ones provided in the e-YouGuide[21] and in the Code on EU
online rights. It will also work with journalists and media specialised in
consumer issues to promote efficient dissemination of information.

The Commission will work closely with Member States on consumer
education issues. It will develop in 2012 an interactive platform for
exchanging best practices and distributing consumer education materials
amongst teachers and other professionals working with 12-18 years old, including
on digital literacy, new media technologies[22]
and sustainable consumption.

4. 3.     Improving
implementation, stepping up enforcement and securing redress

If the Single Market is to
continue to be a success, there need to be improvements in market participants’
trust in the effective and efficient enforcement of their rights and the
availability of adequate redress mechanisms.

Only if consumers can
enforce their rights throughout the EU and reputable traders see that unfair
competitors face appropriate penalties can we expect cross-border trade to
continue to increase in the EU. This is particularly important today, as the
digital revolution makes cross-border shopping easy, but it also increases the
opportunities for rogue traders to engage in unfair practices.

The Commission will
work towards the following two specific objectives:

Ø 5. effectively enforcing consumer law, focusing on key sectors;

Ø 6. giving consumers efficient ways to solve disputes.

A number of concrete
steps will be taken before 2014 to achieve these specific objectives.

Throughout 2012-2014, annual coordinated enforcement actions (‘sweeps’)
through the CPC Network will continue. The Commission will continue
its work to facilitate, support and assist the Network in enforcement. Where
appropriate, it will step up infringement actions to pursue any
misapplication of EU law. The Commission is assessing in depth the scope,
effectiveness and operational mechanisms of the Consumer Protection
Cooperation Regulation. It will report by the end of 2014 on how
cross-border enforcement cooperation could be improved and, if warranted,
propose amending the rules.

To improve enforcement of EU rules impacting on consumers, better
use of the European Judicial Network[23]
will be made to facilitate access to justice, to ensure smooth operation of
procedures with a cross-border impact and to facilitate requests for judicial
cooperation across Member States.

Work will continue to ensure that key materials for transposing and
implementing consumer law across the EU are made available to all interested
judges and legal practitioners, as well as citizens and businesses. To do this,
in 2013 a Consumer Law Database will be developed, which will become an
integral part of the e-Justice portal.[24]

Experience in applying the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive[25] has shown that the Commission needs
to take a more prominent role in monitoring and coordinating enforcement of the
Directive by the Member States, in particular, on recurring issues and emerging
commercial practices, such as the use of online price comparison or customer
review tools. To that end, the Commission will step up coordination of
enforcement action on unfair commercial practices and update the guidance
document on application of the Directive.

Proper enforcement must be secured in key sectors.

To ensure that consumer information requirements in the digital
area are applied consistently, the Commission will develop guidelines by
2014 to help enforcers correctly implement EU rules and the newly adopted Consumer
Rights Directive. Concerted action will be taken by the Commission and national
authorities to combat unfair practices in the sector, such as those related to
the misleading advertising of internet broadband speed.

In the energy sector, there is a need to
ensure full implementation of the Third Energy Package and of its detailed
rules on consumer rights. It is also important to make full use of the
dedicated Citizens’ Energy Forum’s potential.

In the financial services sector, following its 2011 Recommendation,[26] the Commission will closely monitor the
response from Member States in addressing the problem of denied access of
citizens to bank accounts. This is a real issue, not only for disadvantaged consumers who experience financial and social
exclusion, but also for many citizens who travel abroad to live, work or study.

To protect consumers against misleading and unfounded environmental
claims, national enforcers need further support to properly implement the
requirements of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.[27] For this reason, the
Commission will revise the guidance on misleading environmental claims.

Guidelines to facilitate and improve the application of different
Passenger Rights Regulations across all modes of transport
will be drafted.

Furthermore, the Commission will publish guidelines
on the application of Article 20(2) of the Services Directive, which will
help to reduce instances where consumers face unjustified refusals to supply,
or different treatment, on grounds of residence when trying to acquire
cross-border services online.

In its efforts to ensure better enforcement of EU law, the EU will
work with key trading partners to promote compliance with basic consumer
protection principles. Regarding safety, increased international cooperation (in
particular with China) will develop the concept of ‘safety at source’ and help
to limit imports of unsafe products. The increased trend of rogue traders operating
outside the EU in order to escape controls calls for increased vigilance at
global level. The Commission will hence coordinate action with the most affected
third countries and with key international organisations (e.g. OECD, UN, and
WTO). The need for increased international cooperation is particular striking
in the digital area and in the fight against unsolicited commercial
communication (‘spam’).

Concerning the right to redress, the Commission will focus in the
short-to-medium-term on ensuring the adoption and application of its recent
proposals on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Online Dispute
Resolution (ODR), so as to grant as swiftly as possible to all EU consumers
access to simple and speedy procedures to defend their rights. At the same
time, it will ensure the correct transposition and up-take of the Mediation
Directive, which gives every EU judge the right to invite the parties to reach
an amicable settlement of their dispute. The Directive applies to cross-border
disputes but Member States are encouraged to use mediation domestically too.
The European Small Claims procedure, which simplifies, speeds up and
reduces the cost of litigation in cross-border cases for claims up to EUR 2 000,
will be made more accessible for consumers. In 2012, a guide providing
practical advice to consumers and legal practitioners will be issued to this
end. During the course of 2013, the Commission intends to make the small claims
forms available online and report on the operation of the procedure as a whole,
including on the need to revise the level of the threshold.

Finally, on the basis of the outcome of the public consultation
launched in 2011 and following the European Parliament Resolution of 2 February
2012,[28]
the Commission will consider a follow-up initiative on an EU framework for collective
redress.

4.4.        Aligning
rights and key policies to economic and societal change

In today’s changed marketplace it is imperative to
ensure that consumers have the confidence to buy online both traditional,
tangible goods and services as well as digital ones. Consumer laws should
therefore be updated to meet the needs of changing markets and to take account
of emerging insights from behavioural sciences about how consumers behave in
practice.

Moreover, barriers that currently prevent consumers from
accessing the digital products and services they want, easily, legally and
affordably, anywhere in the EU, should be removed.

As a first step, the recent
proposals on a Common European Sales Law and the Data Protection
Reform package will solve many of the problems that consumers face when
purchasing online, in particular by increasing their trust in the Digital
Single Market and in cross-border services.

The proposals on Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) should also help
improve access to redress for consumers.

In 2012, the Commission will
support the European Parliament and the Council in finding an agreement on all
these proposals, in order to ensure speedy adoption and implementation.

It is more essential than ever to ensure coherence and
synergies across EU policies to enhance their positive impact on consumer
spending, in particular in the key sectors of food, energy, transport and
financial services, whilst promoting more sustainable patterns of consumption.

A recent snapshot taken by the European Commission of
the 20 key concerns of citizens and businesses in the Single Market shows that
consumers continue to be frustrated by their energy bills, find it difficult to
defend their rights as passengers, and do not easily find their way in banking
and financial services markets.[29]

To address these
economic and societal issues, the Commission will work towards the following
two specific objectives:

Ø 7. adapting consumer law to the digital age;

Ø 8. promoting sustainable growth and supporting consumer interests in
key sectors.

A number of concrete
steps will be taken before 2014 to achieve these specific objectives.

·
Digital

A set of measures will be considered to tackle key
problems faced by online users and make sure they are adequately protected when
using and buying digital content. These may include standardising key
information given to consumers to facilitate comparisons and initiatives to
assess the need to ensure adequate EU-wide remedies for the purchase of faulty
digital content and, if necessary, to harmonise digital trust marks.

The Commission will tackle persistent challenges related
to territorially-focused copyright management and the current complex regime of
private copying levies, which can have a negative impact on the availability of
digital content across the EU and discourage the development of innovative,
online business models. The Commission will table a legislative proposal on collective
rights management in 2012 and has launched a stakeholders’ dialogue on
private copying and reprography levies under the responsibility of a mediator.
The results of this dialogue will be used to make recommendations for possible legislative
action at EU level. The Commission will also work on addressing specific
challenges regarding copyright and the availability of audiovisual content and
broadcasting services in view of evolving technology, notably to stimulate
cross-border services.

As part of its work to report on the functioning of the
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Commission will assess in 2012 whether
the current rules aimed at protecting children from misleading advertising,
also in the digital environment, need to be enforced better. It will continue
to focus on the specific situation of minors buying or using digital content
online.

The Commission will aim to make commercial interaction
more reliable for both consumers and traders by proposing, in 2012, a legislative
framework for electronic identification, authentication and signatures. It
will set out minimum requirements for information on website localisation and
on the legal existence of its owner, to guarantee the authenticity of the
website. The Commission will also take full account of consumer interests as
part of its forthcoming policy proposals on cloud computing.

Based on the feedback to its January 2012 Green Paper
on card, internet and mobile payments public consultation, the Commission
plans to come forward with concrete proposals during the first quarter of 2013.
The Commission is also preparing a Green Paper on parcel delivery, with adoption
forecast in the last quarter of 2012.

A Communication on online gambling will be presented in 2012,
aimed among other things at improving the protection of consumers and citizens,
including vulnerable groups and minors.

·
Financial services

As part of its work to report in 2012 on the functioning of the Unfair
Commercial Practices Directive, the Commission will assess the need to
strengthen the current rules aimed at combating unfair practices in the
financial services sector or step up enforcement, also with regard to
vulnerable consumers.

The Commission plans to adopt legislative proposals on Packaged
Retail Investment Products to ensure that retail investors are provided
with a short, clear and understandable key information document to help them to
take informed investment decisions. It will also review the Insurance
Mediation Directive, which regulates selling processes for insurance
products.

The Commission will evaluate the implementation of the Consumer
Credit Directive, with a focus on whether it works well for consumers and
whether issues, such as smaller loans, deferred debit or responsible lending,
which are mainly left for Member States’ discretion, need to be revisited. This
is especially important for vulnerable consumers.

In this context, households’ over-indebtedness is also
worrying. A specific study will be launched in early 2012 to take a snapshot of
the situation and list the best practices in force to alleviate its impact.

Consumers need to be aware of the fees they pay for basic banking services
and be able to switch easily between banks if competition is to be ensured in
retail banking. As a result, the Commission will prepare a legislative
initiative in 2012 that will encompass these issues related to bank accounts,
which are at the heart of consumers’ basic needs when managing their finances.

·
Food

Following the adoption of the Regulation on the provision of food
information to consumers,[30]
the Commission will promote the application of the new rules and explore the
need for new initiatives. This is particularly relevant to the labelling of
food origin and the labelling of alcoholic beverages.

The ongoing implementation of the Regulation on nutrition and
health claims[31]
will ensure that all claims relating to a beneficial nutritional or health
effect of foods are based on science and are not misleading for consumers. It
will also guarantee the free movement of foodstuffs with nutritional and health
claims that comply with this Regulation.

The Commission will look into the issue of sustainable food, notably
the issue of food waste. Action targeted at consumers to prevent household food
waste will be included and will need to be complemented by action targeting
other links in the food chain (farmers, retailers, food producers etc.) to be
effective.

·
Energy

The Commission will take further action to improve competition and
particularly price transparency in electricity and gas in order to make offers
by energy companies more understandable to consumers. The forthcoming
implementation of the new Energy Efficiency Directive will increase
consumer rights to information through more transparent rules on accurate
metering and clear, timely billing based on actual individual consumption of
all energy sources, including centralised heating, cooling and domestic hot
water.

Furthermore, the Commission intends to improve the information available
to consumers on how to better manage their domestic energy consumption and encourage
them to use technology, both existing (such as mobile phone enabled real consumption-based
billing) and emerging (such as smart meters) to their benefit. To this end, guidelines
on price transparency in the retail energy market will be developed in
coordination with regulators and stakeholders.

Further specific action on smart meters and technology use by
consumers will be developed by the Commission-led Smart Grids Task Force.

The Energy Labelling Directive will
also be reviewed in 2014. In the meantime, the Commission will propose
implementing its extension online, significantly increasing its impact.[32]

·
Travel and Transport

By early 2013, the Commission will propose an updated Package
Travel Directive, taking into account recent developments in the travel
market. In particular, the reform will take account of the increasing trend of travellers
purchasing so-called ‘dynamic packages’ online rather than traditional
pre-arranged travel packages.[33]
In addition, in 2013, the existing rules on Air Passenger Rights, which
protect travellers in the event of denied boarding, long delay and cancellation,
will be updated.

On urban mobility, the Commission will hold a dialogue with
stakeholders to identify EU-wide best practices and conditions for
strengthening passenger rights in public transport.[34] The Commission will also present,
by 2014, specific measures designed, amongst others, to promote consumer awareness of the availability of alternatives to private
vehicles.

The Commission will make a proposal in 2013 to review the CO2
car labelling rules to bring consumer information up to date. It will also
take steps to develop an alternative fuel strategy to support consumer choice
for cleaner fuels[35]
and to improve consumer information on new transport fuels.[36]

·
Sustainable products

To achieve sustainable growth underpinned by sustainable
consumption, the Commission will consider taking measures to make consumer
goods more durable, including support for repair and maintenance services. It
will assess ways to improve the availability and affordability of more
sustainable products through appropriate incentive schemes or voluntary action.

The Commission will develop harmonised methodologies to
assess the life-cycle environmental performance of products and companies as a
basis for providing reliable information to consumers.

Furthermore, the Eco-design Directive, which sets
minimum environmental requirements for products, will gradually cover a growing
number of products under the second Ecodesign Working Plan and, where
appropriate, will address energy consumption and other significant
environmental impacts of products.

5. Conclusions

This European Consumer Agenda lays down a comprehensive policy framework
designed to put consumers at the heart of the Single Market, as they are key to
growth in the EU. It covers the action that this Commission plans to take during
its mandate to benefit consumers.

All measures take into account the changes in consumption patterns
observed on the ground, technological progress, fast moving markets, the need
to empower consumers and ensure that they can exercise their rights effectively.

To meet the main objectives of this Agenda in the most
effective way and minimise administrative burden, any policy action must be
solidly based on evidence on how markets work in practice and how consumers
behave. Proposals to revise existing EU rules will be underpinned by
evaluations of the legislation currently in force and by rigorous analysis of
the expected impacts.

The measures announced in this Agenda will be also
supported by continuously updated sources of key information, such as the
Consumer Markets Scoreboard, consumer market rankings and the Consumer
Conditions Scoreboards, benchmarking the consumer environment in Member States
and tracking progress in the integration of retail markets. This will be
complemented by market studies analysing the reasons behind market malfunctions
and consumer behavioural studies. The consumer focus will also extend to
research financed under the 2020 programmes.

Efforts will be made to ensure that the proposed policy action
is pre-tested against the eight specific objectives of this Agenda to ensure
greater impact and a better up-take by consumers, while avoiding unnecessary
burden on businesses.

The trends observed over the next couple of years will
help identify any additional action to take after 2014. Progress in meeting the
objectives set out in this Agenda will be monitored by the Commission’s report
on the integration of consumer interests into EU policies.

This Agenda seeks to respond to the challenges of unleashing growth
and restoring confidence in the European economy by enhancing consumer
empowerment and creating policy synergies. To achieve durable results, a
determined commitment by the whole chain of actors implementing this Consumer
Agenda is needed — at EU, national and international level. Only smart and
sustainable demand by consumers matched with fair supply will make a
contribution to putting the EU back on the path for growth.

[1]  ‘Confident consumers create thriving
markets. Building on this autumn’s work, the next work programme will announce
measures to strengthen consumer rights, including in electronic and cross-border
transactions and effectively address health and safety-related matters, thus
improving citizens’ security, while underpinning demand in the Single Market.’
See letter of President Barroso to President Buzek, September 2011.

[2]  EU Citizenship Report COM(2010) 603 final; Single Market Act
COM(2011) 206 final; A Digital Agenda for Europe COM(2010) 245 final/2;
E-commerce Communication COM(2011) 942; Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe
COM(2011) 571 final.

[3] Proposal for a Regulation establishing the EU framework programme
for research and innovation (COM(2011) 809 final).

[4] These sectors were identified as some of the most problematic for
consumers, according to the Consumer Markets Scoreboard.

[5]  See ‘Delivering an area of freedom, security and
justice for Europe’s citizens — Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm
Programme’ COM(2010) 171.

[6] Proposal for a Regulation on agricultural product quality schemes
(COM(2010) 733 final), Proposal for a Regulation establishing marketing
standards (COM(2010)
738 final) guidelines on certification schemes and on food labelling.

[7] Proposal for a
Regulation on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union (COM(2011) 402 final).

[8] Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (COM(2011)
635 final).

[9] Proposal for a Directive on consumer ADR (COM(2011) 793/2),
Proposal for a Regulation on consumer ODR (C(2011) 794/2).

[10] Proposal for a Regulation on the protection of individuals with
regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data
(COM(2012) 11 final), Proposal for a Directive on the protection of individuals
with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the
purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal
offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and the free movement of such
data (COM(2012) 10 final).

[11] Commission Staff Working Paper ‘Bringing e-commerce benefits to
consumers’, Annex 2 to the 2012 E-commerce Communication.

[12] Resource Efficiency Roadmap, COM(2011) 571.

[13] Consumer Empowerment survey; Eurobarometer No 342; 2010.

[14] Idem.

[15] COM(2009) 330 final.

[16] See more in the study ‘The functioning of the retail electricity
markets for consumers in the EU’ http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_research/market_studies/docs/retail_electricity_full_study_en.pdf
.

[17] Communication from the Commission ‘Energy efficiency: delivering
the 20 % target’.

[18] In the EU, the total amount of food waste is about 90 million
tonnes or 180 kg per capita per year, and these figures are expected to rise by
40 % by 2020. See the EU-funded ‘Preparatory study on food waste across
EU 27’, BIO IS December 2009 — October 2010.

[19]http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/common/publications/info_docs/customs/product_safety/guidelines_en.pdf.

[20] http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope.

[21] http://ec.europa.eu/eyouguide.

[22] As announced in the Digital Agenda for Europe.

[23] OJ L 174 of 27.6.2001, p. 25, and L 168 of 30.6.2009, p. 35.

[24] https://e-justice.europa.eu.

[25] Directive 2005/29/EC.

[26] 2011/442/EU: Commission Recommendation of
18 July 2011 on access to a basic payment account.

[27] Directive 2005/29/EC.

[28] European Parliament Resolution of 2 February 2012 on ‘Towards a
Coherent European Approach to Collective Redress’ — P7_TA(2012)0021.

[29] SEC(2011) 1003 final.

[30] Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.

[31] Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.

[32] Consumer 2020  http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=6782.

[33] Dynamic package is a travel product whereby at least two different
travel services (transport, accommodation and/or another tourist services) for
a single trip are offered or sold in a combination, at the same time from the
same supplier or from suppliers that are commercially linked and whereby the
buyer can combine and customise the content of the package according to his/her
preferences.

[34] Action Plan on Urban Mobility; COM(2011) 144. White Paper. ‘Roadmap
to a Single European Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource
efficient transport system’.

[35] COM(2011) 144, White Paper ‘Roadmap to a Single European Transport
Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system’.

[36] Based on the needs identified in the context of the CARS 21
process.