How the EU is planning to empower consumers for the green transition
By now you’ve probably heard a great deal about new legislation from the EU.
It involves a lot of new directives and regulations, and we’d love to update you on yet another aspect of it.
As a part of the European Green Deal, the EU Commission has proposed a directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition.
The goal is to make consumers able to make more informed and sustainable purchasing choices.
It will apply to all companies (yes, that includes SMEs), and involves amending two existing directives.
The EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices (UCPD)
This lists several commercial practices that are deemed unfair and therefore forbidden.
A commercial practice can be unfair by either being misleading or aggressive (forcing actions from the consumer).
In any way, they can lead consumers to make or consider making a purchase decision that they wouldn’t originally have.
The EU Directive on Consumer Rights (CRD)
This states that consumers have the right to receive certain pieces of information before they buy a product or service.
Such information includes certain conditions and the product’s main characteristics.
Proposed changes
As for the UCPD, the proposal seeks to extend the ban on misleading information to also include information on environmental and social impact, durability, and repairability.
This involves some additions to the so-called blacklist of commercial practices that are always unfair.**
In the CRD, it’s proposed that the information the consumers have the right to know before purchasing something should include:
Guarantees of durability that are longer than the two-year legal guarantee
A repairability score, availability of spare parts, and user and repair manuals
We expect that the repairability score will be a part of the proposed Ecodesign requirements, but that isn’t certain yet.
We should mention that many countries already have these rules – perhaps even stricter ones.
For example, the Danish Consumer Ombudsman has similar rules, so there is not necessarily more to comply with.
The point is to standardise rules regarding the protection and empowerment of consumers across the EU.
This will make it easier for authorities across borders to enforce those rules.
And it will help get all countries in the EU on board as well as prevent different interpretations and confusion.
All that should, in the end, also make it easier for you to do business in the EU.
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