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

Services Standards
(5) Checking the coherency of the standard’s structure with regard to
the six main parameters: education and skills, equipment and
premises, pre-contractual obligations and contract conclusion,
content of the contract, post-contractual duties, inspection and
monitoring,
(6) Checking the clarity of the language,
(7) Checking the enforceability of rights and duties,
(8) Checking whether a horizontal solution is appropriate in
particular with regard to: education and skills, equipment and
premises, quality, billing and payment modalities, after-sales
services, monitoring and inspection strategies.
3. Building links between technical standard and contract making
(9) Pushing for the opportunity of a binding declaration of the user of
technical standards to obey its rights and duties, such as the
following 466 :
(10) “If the service provider claims, or purports to claim that his
services comply with the relevant technical standards, the service
provider must exercise the care and skill expressed in these
standards.”
Chapter VII. Conclusions and recommendations
Standardisation of services is still in its infancy. This makes it easier to
formulate recommendations on how to further proceed. These
recommendations are addressed to the European Commission and Member
States, to the European Commission and Standards Bodies, and to ANEC.
I. To the European Commission and Member States: Establishing a
European regulatory framework on standardisation of services
The regulatory framework on the standardisation of services is deficient
compared to the rather developed framework on standardisation of products.
The particularities of services require for a stronger and tighter regulatory
framework. This is due to the fact that standardisation of services is much more
political then standardisation of products. However, the few references in the
466 Article 6 (2) b of Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices, OJ L 149,
11.6.2005, 22 could serve as a precedence.
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