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

Hans-W. Micklitz
6. Monitoring and inspection
In the here chosen perspective, the service provider must be regarded as the
addressee of the monitoring and inspection duty. That is why monitoring and
inspection duties imposed on the Member States and/or on the European
Commission by way of reporting duties might be set aside.
The directives and regulations which define the ground rules for the vertical
markets do not deal with monitoring and inspection duties. In theory the
European legislator may define a legal framework for codes and guidelines to
be elaborated by business and/or business organisations. So far, however, the
European legislator has, if any, obliged Member States to promote the
elaboration of codes or has invited the European Commission and the Member
States to foster the elaboration of standards under the Service Directive.
That is why monitoring and inspection duties could only be found in less
traditional measures where public agencies and/or business organisations
together, or business organisations alone, operate in a legislative vacuum. All in
all, however, the development seems to be in an early stage. There are only a
few indications in the area of network services and the services coming under
the Service Directive. The “best execution obligations” which could be
transposed into a learning mechanism have not been given shape in the
Lamfalussy procedure 393 . In this respect the European legislator leaves it for all
less traditional regulators to give shape to best execution obligations.
Consumer
contract law
on services
Transport
Financial
services
Network
services for
customers
(electricity,
gas,
telecommun
ication,
postal
services)
Services
such as
contracts
with liberal
professions
and
craftsmen
Monitoring
and
inspection in
binding law
Best
execution
obligations 394
Postal
services -
Member
States shall
publish
information
on the
number of
complaints
Assessment
by
independent
bodies,
Assessing
the
competence
of a provider,
393 See fn. 11.
394 Directive 2004/39/EC recital 44.
124