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CONSUMER PROTECTION IN European union

http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_info/10principles/pl.pdf

HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN CONSUMMER LEGISLATION

Origins of the development of consumer legislative in the European Union go back to the end of the fifties of the past century. General conviction that there is a need to improve the quality of life standard and health protection of the Community citizens has underlined the idea of consumer protection. This objective was to define in the preamble of the treaty of 1957 the establishing of the EEC and in art. 2 of the Treaty the establishing of the European Community.

Initially, the consumer affairs were pushed into the background. The main objective of the integration policy was to ensure the flow of goods, services, manpower and the protection of competition. It was assumed that the consumer will benefit of properly operating market and competition and that this was not necessary to set separate pro-consumer rights and other related legislations. Consumer protection as a totally separate community policy began to shape later.

Dynamic development of the European consumer law can be best illustrated by introducing consumer programmes that were carried out over the last few years. The first programme of the consumer policy was developed in 1975 and carried out until 1980. The most essential element was to define the basic catalogue of consumer rights, which over the years, has lost none of its relevance. It covers the right to life protection and safety, safeguard their economic interests, redress for damages, information and education and right to represent consumers’ interests. The programme includes the list of countermeasures to be adopted by the European Community in order to implement the programme, such as: counteracting against unfair or misleading advertisement or protection against unfair business practice in contract terms (specifically in distance and doorstep selling). The second five-year plan covered the years 1981 - 1985. Special focus was put on prices and the role of a dialogue between consumers and businesses. Some works have been focused on drawing up first directives regarding the consumer protection. They have resulted in Council Directive 84/450EEC adopted in 1984 about the misleading and comparative advertising, and a year later Directive 85/374 on Hazardous Product Act and the Directive 85/577 on distance and doorstep selling. The first two consumer programmes has set up the consumer policy and provided a solid base for the development and adoption of further directives.

The third programme covering the years 1985 - 1990 produced the Council Directive 87/102EEC concerning consumer credit and the Council Directive 90/314EEC on Package Travel and Holiday Tours. The European Community has significantly changed its approach to consumer protection. Until now it accounted for the enforcement of Treaty of Rome article 2, which only determined the need "of the raising of the standard of living". Since 1987, under the provision of the Single European Act article 100a the communities aim at the "high level of protection of consumer interests".

Subsequent plans covered the three-year periods. Under the plan adopted for the years 1990 - 1992, the EEC passed the Directive 92/52/EC on the Product Safety Act. The following period in the years 1993 - 1995 focused on the protection of consumer interest on the European common market. This period produced the Directive 93/13/EC on abusive clauses and the Directive 94/47/EC on timesharing. The plan implementation time coincided with the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, which significantly raised the level of requirements regarding consumer protection. The Community shall contribute to the attainment of a high level of health protection (art. 3a), to the strengthening of consumer protection (art. 3s), and Consumer protection requirements shall be taken into account in defining and implementing other Community policies and activities (art. 129a). The Treaty, for the first time, defined the European policy of consumer protection as an independent area of EU policy. This way, after Maastricht, the consumer policy became one of the catalogues of the Community policies, which was reflected in art. 3 letter t of the Treaty. Additionally, art. 129a of the Maastricht Treaty (after the Treaty of Amsterdam, i.e. art. 153) determines on the protection of health, safety and economic interests of consumers as well as their right to information, education and to organise themselves in order to safeguard their interests.¹.

The sixth plan consumer protection implemented in the years 1996 - 1998, focused on the improvement of information in the area of public and financial services and on product safety. It effected in the issuance of the Directive 97/7 on Distance Contracts and Directive 98/27 on Protection of Consumers' Collective Interests. The mission of the next plan covering the years 1999 - 2001 was to put pressure on the popularisation of codes of good practice, introducing information technology, assistance to the EU Acceding States, increase of confidence in food products and on paying attention to a problem of public services. For the purpose of achieving the adopted objectives, the following directives have been issued: Directive 99/44 on Sales of Consumer Goods, Directive 2000/31 on Electronic Commerce, Directive 2000/65 on Distance Marketing of Financial Services and Directive 2001/95 on General Product Safety. Treaty of Amsterdam has brought the new quality in consumer protection. The provisions of the Treaty impose on the Community an obligation to contribute to the improvement of consumer protection (art. 3t), put in hand measures in the area of judicial cooperation in civil cases (art. 65), provide not only the high level of consumer protection but also promotion of consumer interests by judicial and extrajudicial cases (art. 153, former art. 129a), linking them more closely with other Community policies (art. 153 paragraph 2), support and complete Member States policies and ensure their continuation. In order to accomplish the above objectives, the Treaty provides for minimum or total harmonisation. Currently, in the area of consumer protection, the European Community focuses its attention on three basic goals. These are: high level of consumer protection enforcement, effective enforcement of consumer legislation and reinforced involvement of consumer organisations.

Apart from legislative and organisational activity of the Community in the area of consumer protection, one must remember a significant role of the European Court of Justice (the Court). The problem of consumer protection has prevailed in the Court rulings for over 20 years. Since giving the decisive ruling in Cassis de Dijon, it is recognised that in case if there is no community harmonisation, the transfer of products may be unilaterally restricted by the Member States with the view to attaining consumer protection.².

Annotations:

1. E. Deards, S. Hargreaves, European Union Law, Blackstone Press, Oxford 2001.
2. Dauses, Sturm, Prawne podstawy ochrony konsumenta na rynku UE, KPP 1/1997.

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