After the Implementation of the Consumer Rights Directive in the Member States. Are the National Provisions on Consumer Sales Effectively Harmonised?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2018
Summary
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CRD IN THE MEMBER STATES
Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights (Consumer Rights Directive, CRD) has been implemented in all the EU Member States and it is now possible, in the light of the choices made by the national legislators, to try to make a first evaluation of the impact of the Directive on the national law of the Member States by analysing how the new provisions have been integrated in the national legal systems and how they have been coordinated with the existing rules on consumer contracts and on sale of goods; by verifying if, and to what extent, the EU institutions’ overall goal of harmonising national laws has been effectively achieved.
Such complex questions will probably keep European literature and jurisprudence busy for the next several years. However, in this discussion it is particularly important that scholars and judges do not focus solely on the situation in their own country, but that they also make themselves aware of the experience and evolution of the national systems of all EU Member States. This is exactly what was achieved at the international symposium on consumer sales in the Member States after the implementation of the CRD, held in Ferrara in October 2014, on which this book is based. The conclusions reached by the national reporters are of vital importance for the evolution of a European private law of consumer contracts, especially now that the European Commission has officially withdrawn the Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law, and has subsequently drafted new proposals for directives on distance B2C sales of goods and on consumer contracts for the supply of digital goods.
In this short introduction I will restrict myself to some brief remarks on some aspects of the implementation process and outcomes in the EU Member States.
THE SCOPE OF APPLICATION OF THE NATIONAL PROVISIONS IMPLEMENTING THE DIRECTIVE: SUBJECTIVE LIMITATIONS
First of all, it is important to highlight the fact that in general the national implementing provisions have kept the same subjective limitations to their scope of application as found in the CRD. It is therefore noteworthy that every Member State has transposed the provisions of the CRD as pure consumer contract law.
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- Consumer Sales in Europe , pp. 1 - 14Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2016