EVALUATION_OPINION Evaluation of the Consumer Credit Directive (2008/48/EC)
Date: 2020-01-31
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, application of EU law, consumer credit, consumer protection, contract, credit policy, single market

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 31.1.2020 
SEC(2020) 371 final 

 REGULATORY SCRUTINY BOARD OPINION 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 
on the implementation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers  

{SWD(2020) 254 final} 
{SWD(2020) 255 final } 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
Regulatory Scrutiny Board 

Ref. Ares(2020)619470 - 31/01/2020

Brussels,  
Ares (2020) 

Opinion 

Title: Evaluation of the Consumer Credit Directive (2008/48/EC) 

Overall opinion: POSITIVE 

(A) Policy context 

The  EU  adopted  the  current  Consumer  Credit  Directive  in  2008.  The  Directive  obliges 
lenders  to  disclose  key  information  to  potential  borrowers.  Lenders  must  also  assess 
borrowers’  creditworthiness.  Borrowers  have  a  cooling-off  period  during  which  they  can 
back  out  of  a  loan  for  any  reason.  The  Directive  also  provides  borrowers  with  rights  to 
repay loans early. 

The  legislation  requires  a  review  every  five  years.  This  evaluation  also  responds  to  a 
REFIT platform opinion about disclosure obligations in advertisements.  

This  evaluation  explains  how  Member  States  have  implemented  the  Directive,  and 
analyses  whether  it  remains  fit  for  purpose.  The  evaluation  identifies  shortcomings  and 
aspects for further consideration. 

(B) Summary of findings 

The Board finds the report to be comprehensive, informative and reader-friendly.  

The Board gives a positive opinion. The Board also considers that the report should  
further improve with respect to the following aspects:  

(1)  The  main  conclusions  do  not  adequately  capture  and  draw  lessons  from  some 
important issues that emerge from the analysis. Limitations and uncertainties of 
the analysis are not made sufficiently clear.   

(2)  The  report  does  not  sufficiently  explain  the  significance  of  low  levels  of  cross 
border consumer credits and obstacles for the internal market. The need for EU-
level measures is not clear.  

(3)  The  report  does  not  sufficiently  balance  consultation  findings  against  statistical 

data from other sources.    

  ________________________________   
This opinion concerns a draft evaluation, which may differ from the final version. 

Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles - Belgium. Office: BERL 08/405. E-mail: regulatory-scrutiny-board@ec.europa.eu 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(C) What to improve 

(1)  The  conclusions  and  executive  summary  should  better  bring  out  key  insights  and 
lessons  learned  from  this  evaluation  exercise.  The  report  should  focus  attention  on  core 
elements of the Directive and on areas where findings raise issues for policy makers and 
future political choices. It should draw clearer conclusions with regard to issues raised in 
the  REFIT  platform  opinion.  The  report  could  also  conclude  more  prominently  on  its 
findings  on  creditworthiness  assessments.  It  could  be  more  consistent  in  evaluating  its 
double  role in  providing  access  to  foreign  credit  markets  and  protecting  consumers  from 
over-borrowing. 

(2)  The evaluation provides evidence that there has been little progress towards achieving 
the internal market objective. It attributes this failure to obstacles outside the scope of the 
Directive.  The  report  should  more  clearly  set  out  the  problems  that  the  absence  of  an 
internal  market  in  consumer  credit  causes,  and  why  EU  action  is  more  appropriate  than 
national regulation to address these problems. 

(3)  The report should better describe the current state of the market for consumer credit in 
different EU Member States. It could also distinguish more clearly between banks and non-
bank  providers.  The  report  would  benefit  from  more  data  (on  types  of  products,  market 
volumes, interest  rates, consumer complaints, etc.) at Member State level  to improve the 
market  description  and  to  qualify  findings,  including  on  the  potential  for  cross  border 
credit. 

(4)  The report should be more transparent about limitations and uncertainties of the data 
and  analysis.  It  should  better  explain  how  it  arrived  at  quantitative  estimates  of  the 
benefits, and indicate how reliable those estimates are. 

Some more technical comments have been sent directly to the author DG. 

(D) Conclusion 

The  DG  must  take  these  recommendations  into  account  before  launching  the 
interservice consultation. 

Full title 

Evaluation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreement for 
consumers 

Reference number 

PLAN/2018/3118 

Submitted to RSB on 

20/12/2019 

Date of RSB meeting 

29/01/2020 

Electronically signed on 31/01/2020 15:03 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563

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