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

Hans-W. Micklitz
2. Equipment and premises
From a consumer point of view safety of equipment and premises ranks on top,
quality comes second 435 . Both areas constitute a prominent field for
standardisation.
Equipment should be regarded as “products”. In this respect the safety
requirements of the General Product Safety Directive should apply irrespective
of whether the consumer uses the equipment him or herself or whether the
service provider uses the equipment to fulfil his obligations 436 ,
• Therefore safe equipment should mean any product which, under normal
or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use including duration and,
where applicable, putting into service, installation and maintenance
requirements, does not present any risk or only the minimum risks
compatible with the equipment's use, considered to be acceptable and
consistent with a high level of protection for the safety and health of
persons 437 ,
There is a limited set of EC rules that deal with the safety of premises, the EC
Recommendation 86/666/EEC on fire safety of hotels, Directive 89/106/EC 438 on
construction products, Directive 89/654/EEC 439 on safety and health
requirements for the workplace, and Directive 95/16/EC 440 on lifts.
• The requirements on fire safety as defined in Recommendation
86/666/EEC should be extended to all sorts of premises where
consumers are located, accommodated or where they simply stay,
whether the premises are new or old 441 ,
• The requirements on construction products that have been elaborated
under Directive 89/106/EC should be taken as a yardstick to measure the
safety of construction material – both for new and old premises.
435 Quality of equipment and premises is dealt with under 4. a).
436 The Directive 2001/95/EC applies only, if the product is designed to be used by the
consumer, see Article 2 (a) definition of product.
437 The formula is more or less literally taken from Article 2 (b) of the GPSD 2001/95/EC. It
differs with regard to the reference to equipment.
438 OJ L 40, 11.2.1989, 12.
439 OJ L 393, 30.12.1989, 1.
440 OJ L 213, 7.9.1995, 1.
441 The later requirement is of particular importance as the recommendation applies to new
hotels only. The Commission Report COM (201) 348 final on the application of
recommendation 86/666/EEC revealed major deficiencies to that respect.
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