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

Services Standards
• In 2005 the European Commission published a report on consumer
safety in amusement parks 245 . The report, which was elaborated with the
support of the Risk and Policy Analysts Limited, identifies and describes
the existing regulatory and non-regulatory measures aiming at consumer
safety in fairgrounds and amusement parks and presents different
options for improvement. It estimates that there are about 19000 injuries
per year associated with fairgrounds and amusement parks throughout
the EU.
• In 2005 the European Commission published a report which shall help to
improve data collection 246 . This is in line with the conclusions drawn from
consultations with stakeholders on the issue of safety of consumer
services that took place in 2003. The purpose of the study was to assist
the European Commission in identifying and examining options for an
improved systematic collection of data in relation to the safety of leisure
services. The present report investigates existing schemes at
international, national and local levels that monitor accidents related to
tourist and leisure services and makes recommendations for a future EUwide
system.
The Service Directive has paved the way for officially providing Standards
Bodies with a mandate to undertake a feasibility study on the degree to which
safety of services can be standardised 247 .
bb) Impact on standardisation of services
It seems as if the European Commission is willing to put safety matters into the
hands of Standards Bodies. In this respect there is increased pressure on
consumer organisations to adequately manage safety issues in ongoing
standardisation projects. Legally speaking, there are severe doubts whether it is
possible to delegate product safety matters away from the responsibility of
statutory entities to private organisations without providing for a system under
which the outcome can be adequately evaluated, assessed and confirmed. The
protection of health and safety belongs to the core tasks of modern nation
states. If the nation states decide to delegate safety issues to private institutions
245 http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_safe/serv_safe/reports/final_032005_en.pdf.
246 http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_safe/serv_safe/reports/final_en.pdf.
247 See Chapter III, III, 2 a).
73