EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/85

(2004/C 78 E/0084)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2186/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(30 June 2003)

Subject: Need for better consumer protection against malicious or negligent practices in international e-commerce

1. Is the Commission aware of the findings of the European Consumer Centre which indicate that, in too many cases, international shopping over the Internet results in failure to deliver the goods ordered (34 %), payments being banked for goods which have not been delivered (8 %), failure to repay the price of goods returned by the recipient (33 %) and failure to repay the costs of delivery of goods returned (37 %)?

2. In view of these figures, does the Commission agree with the Consumer Centre's conclusion that the position of consumers is highly unsatisfactory in this respect?

3. Does the Commission agree with me that additional protection is needed? If so, what will the Commission do to bring about the introduction of rules to protect consumers adequately against abuse by international e-commerce firms which commit malicious and deliberate abuses and are difficult for consumers to trace and whose principal business seems to consist of receiving money for goods which they do not deliver? What initiatives will the Commission take to this end?

4. How are e-commerce businesses monitored, particularly to prevent abuses by businesses acting in bad faith?

5. Might it be possible to prohibit businesses from receiving payments before the goods have been delivered and/or possibly returned? How could compliance with such a prohibition be adequately policed?

6. Might it be possible to recognise that — until such time as it becomes possible to provide genuinely effective protection against abuses — consumers should be strongly advised to avoid making purchases over the Internet or this method of purchase should even be stopped until supplementary security requirements which will make abuses impossible have been met?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(13 August 2003)

The Commission is indeed aware of the report and its findings. It has supported the European Consumer Centres' initiative in this matter, and is also supporting their initiative to continue their work in this area.

The Commission has taken note of the conclusions of the report. Even though the results of the report are based on a fairly small sample of test transactions, the report does appear to show that the e-commerce market in the Union is not functioning as it should.

In this context, however, the Commission believes that whereas malevolent and abusive practices may be a part of the problem, this is not the full picture. Questions which will play an important role in this respect are those related to the understanding, by both consumers and companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), of the rules and regulations put in place to preserve consumers' interests. Moreover, there should be an analysis of the numbers of defective cases within Member States as opposed to those in cross-border trade, compared against the respective levels of national and international purchases. Both the Commission and the European Consumer Centres are planning to follow-up on their work.

The Commission has been aware of the need for additional efforts at Union level to protect consumers. This issue is wider in scope than e-commerce, and affects all aspects of cross-border B2C trade.

There is already a sound level of protection provided under existing rules, and in particular the distance selling Directive (1), even though its transposition in Member States has been slow, and the e-commerce Directive (2).

In addition, the Commission has recently launched a proposal for a Framework Directive on unfair commercial practices (3). This Directive, once implemented, should raise, and in particular harmonise, the level of protection of consumers against unfair practices across the Union. It will also complement existing legislation in this area.

Control and monitoring of companies' activities, and enforcement of consumer protection legislation, belongs to the Member States' competence. The Commission is, however, working towards enhancing cooperation between Member States in this area, notably through the proposal for a Regulation on cooperation between national authorities responsible for enforcement of consumer protection laws, adopted on 18 July 2003 (4).

As the Honourable Member is aware, the issue of payments in e-commerce is complex, and includes questions such as ‘chargeback’ (in which case the consumer's credit card company undertakes to recover payments from the merchant in case of dispute), or indeed the possibility of obliging companies to refrain from collection until delivery has taken place. All these options are currently being considered by the Commission.

The Commission does not share the Honourable Member's view that consumers should be advised not to shop on the internet. Even though the e-commerce report of the European Consumer Centres shows that there are shortcomings in some respects, the Commission would not conclude that shopping on the Internet is in itself unsafe.

What, the Commission believes, is important is to inform consumers of what they should expect and require from e-merchants. Similarly, e-merchants should be informed about the applicable legal requirements and encouraged to inform consumers clearly about their rights.

The Commission would also like to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the e-confidence initiative which was launched by the Member of the Commission in charge of Health and Consumer Protection and which resulted in a joint document presented by European Consumers and Employers. This initiative, which aims at producing a set of European standards for e-commerce trustmarks, is part of the overall package of consumer protection initiatives undertaken by the Commission.

(1) Directive 97/7/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, OJ L 144, 4.6.1997.

(2) Directive 2000/31/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market, OJ L 178, 17.7.2000.

(3) COM(2003) 356 final.

(4) COM(2003) 443 final.