Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Services Standards
premises
Consumer
contract law
on services
Leisure
(package
tours, time
sharing):
minimum
standards on
fire safety in
hotels 309
Transport
Ban must be
made
available in
the business
premises 310
Financial
services
Security of
such as cash
machines
3. Pre-contractual stage and conclusion of contract
Network
services for
customers
(electricity,
gas,
telecommun
ication,
postal
services
Postal
services
rules on the
availability of
access points
(such as
letterboxes)
311 , but no
rules on their
safety or
security
Services
such as
contracts
with liberal
professions
and
craftsmen
Rules on the
hygiene of
equipment to
be used at
work are
explicitly
excluded 312
The traditional concept of contract law is caveat emptor. That means the buyer
– that is, the consumer – is responsible for obtaining information in order to be
able to take an informed decision on whether to engage in a contract or not. It is
one of the major characteristics of (European) consumer law that the burden to
furnish information is put to a large degree on the supplier. This is likewise true
for the existing sector-specific EC rules on services. The service providers are
coming under a legal obligation to meet the consumer’s information needs and
to provide adequate advice even in the pre-contractual stage. Pre-contractual
duties are governing the transparency principle. This means that all information
must be provided in a clear and comprehensible way. European contract law
rules are said to strengthen the rights of consumers, customers and the insured,
to receive as much information as possible in the pre-contractual stage so as to
be able to compare prices and quality in order to make not only an informed, but
the best-informed, decision. European law is near to an obligation of the
supplier to disclose material information 313 .
309 Council Recommendation 86/666/EEC on fire safety, OJ L 385, 31.12.1986, 60.
310 Article 3 para 3 Regulation 2111/2005 of 14 December 2005.
311 See Directive 2002/39/EC, however, the Directive does not lay down standards on how
letterboxes should look like or on the safety (security of letterboxes).
312 Recitals 14 and 86.
313 Wilhelmsson, Private Law Remedies against the Breach of Information Requirements of
EC Law, in: Schulze, et al., Informationspflichten und Vertragsschluss im Acquis
109