Food Quality Magazine
ISSUE 01 | JANUARY 2016
Evaluation and fitness check roadmap
of EU consumer law
Cesare Varallo, foodlawlatest.com
tising (Misleading and Comparative
Advertising Directive);
• Directive 2009/22/EC on injunctions for the protection of consumers’
interests (Injunctions Directive). The
following Directive will be evaluated
separately by the Commission in accordance with its Article 30:
The Commission published this
January an evaluation and fitness
check roadmap of consumer law.
Plans for a Fitness Check of legal
acts related to consumer rights and
advertising were first announced in
the 2013 REFIT Communication . The
Commission Work Programme 2015
included, as one of the REFIT actions
in the area of Justice, Consumers and
Gender Equality, a Fitness Check of
key EU directives in the area of consumer rights and advertising:
• Consumer Rights Directive
2011/83/EU. The outcome of this
separate evaluation of the Consumer
Rights Directive will feed into the
conclusions of the Fitness Check.
There will be several types of consultations during the Fitness Check:
• Online public consultation of 12
weeks in order to provide an opportunity for the public to participate in
the evaluation;
• Targeted consultation of representative organisations (Member
states authorities, businesses and
consumer and industry organisations) – by surveys, interviews and
case studies performed by the Commission’s external contractor;
• Targeted online consultation of a
representative number of consumers
in each Member State performed by
the external contractor;
• Case studies with businesses in
each Member State, in particular
SMEs, performed by the external
contractor.
In addition, the Commission will organise 2 events for Member States
experts and other stakeholders and
will inform and consult them through
the existing networks.
The overall aim of the Fitness Check
is to analyse the and EU added value
of the policy framed by the directives
• Directive 2005/29/EC concerning
unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market (Unfair Commercial Practices Directive);
• Directive 1999/44/EC on certain
aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees (Sales
and Guarantees Directive);
• Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair
terms in consumer contracts (Unfair
Contract Terms Directive). The
above-mentioned directives are part
of the body of general EU consumer
law. For consistency reasons and to
ensure comprehensive evaluation
the following Directives should also
be subject to the Fitness Check:
• Directive 98/6/EC on consumer
protection in the indication of the
prices of products offered to consumers (Price Indication Directive);
• Directive 2006/114/EC concerning
misleading and comparative adver-
5