The current proposal is described as being complementary to the Unfair Contract Terms Directive under which, irrespective of where goods are bought in the Community, consumers are protected against unfair general conditions of sale. Feasibility of harmonisation 83. A preliminary question is whether harmonisation is feasible, having regard to the different positions in the Member States-identifiable and explicable in part by their legal and political histories and the fundamental differences between the common and civil law.
Experience shows that it can be done, and done successfully.
The Vienna Sales Convention, whose success can be measured by the number and diversity of States which have become party to it, is a pertinent example. The Convention is an effective marriage of the common law and civil law whose conclusion required compromise on both sides. The Convention applies only to commercial transactions. Nonetheless the Commission has drawn on it as a model for several provisions of the Directive. As we shall explain below there are parts of the present proposal which, even when allowance is made for the difference between commercial and consumer transactions, we believe would benefit from following more closely the approach and text of the Convention.