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

Services Standards
later stage to help identify the best practice which should be taken as a
yardstick against which all standardisation projects outside regulated fields of
services could be measured.
The European Commission pursues mainly a sector-specific, vertical approach.
Each of the sectors has its own history. Not each sector involves a different
Directorate within the European Commission, but the competence for the six
sectors under scrutiny is spread over three Directorates – DG SANCO, DG
TREN and DG MARKET 55 . The latter being so important and so big in
comparison at least to DG SANCO that the subdivisions which deal with
financial services, network services and other services (the services directive)
come near to a separate Directorate.
1. Consumer protective device
Consumer policy goes back to the seventies, the first and second consumer
programmes 56 . Two of the adopted directives, in concreto those on package
tours 57 and time-sharing 58 are to be understood as a reaction to a growing new
industry which yielded the need for a European wide solution. The Consumer
Credit Directive 59 is inspired by the intention to establish a European market on
consumer credit. Common standards should encourage consumers to compare
prices and make better choices. The proposal currently under discussion is
meant to overcome the still existing boundaries of nationally shaped consumer
credit markets. The Commission project on European Contract 60 law sets a new
tone in consumer contract law regulation.
The existing Regulation No. 261/2004 61 on air passengers and the envisaged
one on railroad passengers 62 fit relatively well into the picture of cross-border
mobility and the need for substantive protection of the economic interests of
consumers and travellers. Both regulations are designed to grant passengers
basic mandatory rights, just as in consumer law directives. The addressees,
55 DG SANCO (Santé et Consommation) stands for DG Health and Consumer Protection, DG
MARKET stands for DG Internal Market and Services, DG TREN stands for DG Energy
and Transport.
56 OJ C 92, 25.4.1975 and OJ C 133, 3.6.1981.
57 OJ L 158, 23.6.1990, 59.
58 OJ L 280, 29.10.1994, 83.
59 OJ L 42, 12.2.1987, 48.
60 See COM (2001) 398 final, 11.7.2001, OJ C 255, 13.9.2001, 1, also Grundmann/Stuyck
(eds.), An Academic Green Paper on European Contract Law, 2002. The Communication
has boosted publication of articles and books on European contract law.
61 OJ L 46, 17.2.2004, 1.
62 COM (2004) 143 final, 3.3.2004.
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