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

Hans-W. Micklitz
and comparing national professional requirements on a very broad array
of professional activities. The aim is to define European wide acceptable
professional profiles. It would be worth finding out whether these profiles
could be used in giving clear shape to the relevant professional
qualifications.
• On safety of services: amongst others, the European Commission has
initiated a number of research projects which deal with particular sectors
of services or particular risks to the consumer which result from services.
This research has to be taken together in order to define common
standards on the safety of equipment and premises, as well as on those
intangible services which might cause harm to consumers 478 .
• At the pre-contractual stage, contract conclusion and content of the
contract: the acquis group 479 and the study group 480 are both working on
the so-called “Common Frame of Reference” 481 which will form the major
result of the European project on the codification of private law. The
Common Frame of Reference will in all probability contain a set of
definitions and explanations of major legal categories, such as contract
and damage. The Common Frame of Reference will not become binding
law, but it will and should guide the European Commission in its
legislative activities. It remains to be seen to what extent the new tools
and devices can and should be used in the standardisation of services
once they are made public.
In terms of a blueprint for a consumer related technical standard on services:
The findings of this report, the expected results from the studies proposed here,
as well as ISO/IEC Draft Guide 76 ‘Development of service standards –
recommendation for addressing consumer issues’ and the draft ISO DIS 10001
‘Quality management – customer satisfaction – guidelines for codes of conduct
for organisations’, should contribute to the elaboration of a blueprint for a
consumer related technical standard on services.
478 See Billaux, DG Sanco speech at ANEC Services working group, 16.5.2006, who gives in
overview on EU priorities for consumer services.
479 www.acquis-group.org.
480 www.studygroup.com.
481 Whilst this term has been used in the diverse communications from the European
Commission (since COM (2001) 398), it is not yet clear, what the Common Frame of
Reference should look like.
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