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

Services Standards
Services Directive 2006/123/EC 410 . So far the standard-setting bodies have
elaborated a broad array of technical standards, five of them, those being
studied here, directly or indirectly affect consumers.
Four out of five deal with highly technical issues, the opening of a private
letterbox, the measurement of transit time for first and second class mail and
the measurement of loss of registered and other mail. The fifth deals with
consumer protection issues, complaint handling and dispute settling. ANEC has
been involved in all five standard-making procedures and it seems as if ANEC
has managed to influence standard-making.
However, none of the standards deal more specifically with contractual relations
and the implications of bad and insufficient performance on services 411 . That is
why the link between the more technical standards and the civil law
implications, liability for theft, delay and loss, are only dealt with to a very limited
degree.
1. Scope, education and skills
None of the five standards contain rules on education and skills of the service
provider. This is all the more astonishing as there is an ongoing debate in legal
doctrine as to whether the service providers should be obliged to exercise
control over the supply of unsolicited services 412 .
Apertures of
private
letterboxes
and letter
plates
Requiremen
ts and test
methods
EN 13724
Quality of
service
Measureme
nt of transit
time of endto-end
for
single piece
priority mail
and first EN
13850
Guide to
implementat
ion of EN
13850
Quality of
service,
Measureme
nt of
complaints
and redress
procedures
EN 14012
Quality of
service,
Measureme
nt of loss of
registered
mail and
other types
of postal
service
using a
track and
trace
system
EN 14137
Quality of
service
Measureme
nt of transit
time of endto-end
for
single piece
non-priority
mail and
second
class mail
EN 14508
Scope/purpo
se
Specifies the
requirements
and the test
methods of
EN 13850
Specifies
methods for
measuring
Specifies
requirements
for the
measuremen
Specifies
methods for
measuring
the level of
In addition to
EN 13850
specifies
methods for
410 See Chapter III, I, 2, g).
411 The respective category 4 b) remains empty throughout the analysis.
412 This has started together with the adoption of Directive 97/7/EC on distance selling, with
due regard to the reach of Article 10.
163