COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC
Date: 2020-11-05
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: collective interest, consumer policy, consumer protection, indemnification, infringement of EU law, injunction, single market

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 5.11.2020  COM(2020) 693 final 2018/0089 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
 
2018/0089 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a directive of the European Parliament and of 
the Council on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of 
consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council (document COM(2018) 184 final – 2018/0089 
(COD): 

12 April 2018. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

20 September 2018. 

Date of the opinion of the European Committee of the Regions:                                                            

10 October 2018. 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

26 March 2019. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

N/A. 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

4 November 2020. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

As part of the "New Deal for Consumers" initiative, the European Commission presented a 
proposal  for  a  Directive  on  representative  actions  for  the  protection  of  the  collective 
interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC.  

The objective of the proposal is to increase the level of consumer protection and improve 
the  smooth  functioning  of  the  internal  market,  by  increasing  the  effectiveness  of  the 
current injunction procedure for the protection of consumers' interests, and complementing 
it with a mechanism for collective consumer redress.  

The proposal sets out rules enabling qualified entities to seek representative actions aimed 
at  the  protection  of  the  collective  interests  of  consumers,  while  ensuring  appropriate 
safeguards  to  avoid  abusive  litigation.  The  possible  measures  to  be  sought  within  the 
representative actions include injunctive measures to stop or prohibit a trader’s practice, if 
it  is  considered  an  infringement  of  one  of  the  relevant  EU  laws,  as  well  as  redress 
measures  that  will  provide  consumers  represented  in  the  action  with  remedies  available 

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under EU and national law. The proposal foresees harmonised criteria for the designation 
of qualified entities as well as rules on third party funding, assistance to qualified entities 
and  their  mutual  recognition,  settlements,  consumer  information  and  disclosure  of 
evidence  with  the  aim  to  ensure  the  effectiveness  of  the  procedure  in  the  domestic  and 
cross-border context. The scope of application of the proposal covers horizontal consumer 
law and sector-specific EU instruments relevant for the protection of collective interests of 
consumers in different sectors such as financial services, energy, telecommunications, data 
protection, travel, tourism, health and environment.  

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

In line with the political agreement, the Council’s first reading position introduces a number 
of changes to the Commission’s proposal, mainly in order to: 

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clarify the objectives of the Directive as contributing to the functioning of the 
single market through a high level of protection of consumers. In this context, 
it also refers to the objective of consumers’ access to justice,  

provide  the  Member  States  with  discretion  as  regards  the  designation  of  the 
qualified  entities  enabled  to  bring  domestic  representative  actions,  while 
strengthening  the  harmonised  criteria  for  designation  of  qualified  entities 
enabled to bring cross-border actions, 

clarify the categories of measures to be sought by qualified entities,  the rules 
on  consumer  participation  within  the  action,  coordination  of  possible  parallel 
actions,  third  party  funding,  allocation  of  procedural  costs,  consumer 
information, disclosure of evidence and assistance to qualified entities, 

make  the  Directive  more  principle-based  by  providing  Member  States  with 
more discretion as regards procedural modalities such as settlements, effects of 
final  decisions,  limitation  periods  or  penalties  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
adaptation  of  the  representative  actions  into  the  national  enforcement 
frameworks. 

introduce  a  review  clause  on  the  possible  establishment  of  a  European 
ombudsman for representative actions, 

extend the transposition period of the Directive from 18 to 24 months.  

The  Council’s  position  fully  reflects  the  political  agreement  reached  between  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  on  22  June  2020.  The  Commission  considers  that  these 
amendments  to  the  proposal  are  in  line  with  its  original  policy  objectives.  Therefore,  the 
Commission can endorse the Council’s position.  

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission supports the Council position. 

The  adoption  of  this  Directive  will  mark  an  important  milestone  towards  the  effective 
enforcement  of  consumer  rights  in  the  EU  where  the  collective  interests  of  consumers  are 

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concerned. The Directive will also contribute to a level playing field for traders operating in 
the internal market. 

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