EU adopts new rules on sales contracts for goods and digital content
EU Member States will have two years to transpose new rules into their national law.
16 Aprilie 2019, 15:36
European Union is introducing new rules to make it easier and safer for consumers to buy and companies to sell both goods and digital content cross-border.
Council of the EU adopted, on 15 April, a package comprising a directive on contracts for the supply of digital content and services (Digital content directive), and a directive on contracts the sales of goods (Sales of goods directive). This formal adoption marks the end of the legislative procedure.
Objective is to provide a high level of protection and legal certainty for European consumers, in particular when buying across borders as well as to make it easier for businesses, especially SMEs, to sell EU-wide.
Romanian Minister of Economy, Niculae Bădălău: European Union is boosting consumer rights for Europeans and creating new business opportunities for EU companies. Companies will be able to cut red tape when they want to expand and start selling across the Union. This will help in particular SMEs to extend their operations in other EU countries.
Romanian Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader: Consumers will benefit from a higher level of protection thanks to the EU. They will be entitled to remedies when they buy anything from clothes to complex goods, such as smart watches, or when they purchase cloud services, antivirus software or e-books.
Digital content directive introduces a high level of protection for consumers paying for a service but also for those providing data in exchange for such service. New rules foresee in particular that if it is not possible to fix defects within a reasonable amount of time, consumer is entitled to a price reduction or full reimbursement. Moreover, guarantee period cannot be shorter than two years.
Sale of goods directive will apply to all goods, including those products with a digital element (e.g. smart fridges). New rules introduce a two years minimum guarantee period (from the time consumer receives the good) and one year period for the reversed burden of proof in favour of the consumer. Countries can go beyond those times to maintain their current level of consumer protection.
Background
"Digital content directive" concerns supply of digital content and covers: data produced and supplied in digital form (e.g. music, online video, etc.), services allowing for the creation, processing or storage of data in digital form (e.g. cloud storage), services allowing for the sharing of data (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, etc.) and any durable medium used exclusively as a carrier of digital content (e.g. DVDs). 'Over the top' interpersonal communication services (OTTs), bundle contracts and the processing of personal data are included within the scope of the DCD directive.
"Sales of goods directive" concerns all sales of goods, whether than happens physically (in shops), online or in any distance sale. Goods with a digital component (e.g. smart fridge or intelligent watch) are covered by this directive.
Both directives are based on the principle of maximum harmonisation, which means member states cannot deviate from the requirements. However, on some aspects, some room is foreseen for EU countries to go beyond the requirements in order in particular to maintain the level of consumer protection already applied at national level.
Next steps
Texts will now be formally signed and publish in the Official journal. EU Member States will have two years to transpose new rules into their national law.
Source:Romania2019.eu,EU Council Press Service
