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

Hans-W. Micklitz
1. Guidelines and recommendations by Finnish Consumer Agency
The notable exemption here to be mentioned derives from the Finnish
Consumer Agency. The Finnish Consumer Protection Act covers products and
services. The guidelines are seen as a means to enforce the law. They can be
broken down into general guidelines for the promotion of safety in program
services (such as sports, adventure activities) and sector-specific guidelines.
These initiatives have contributed to ANEC’s intervention in the shaping of
CEN’s working programme.
• Finnish Consumer Agency & Ombudsman – Guidelines for the
Promotion of Safety in Program Services, publication series 11/2003;
• Finnish Consumer Agency & Ombudsman – Guidelines for the
Promotion of Safety of Ski Slopes, publication series 2/2002;
• Finnish Consumer Agency & Ombudsman – Guidelines for the
Promotion of Safety at Swimming Pools and Family Spas, publication
series 2/2003;
• Finnish Consumer Agency & Ombudsman – Guidelines for Furthering
the Safety of Karting, publication series 6/2003;
a) Impact on standardisation of services
The Finnish Product Safety Legislation covers services. The consumer agency
has been given powers to survey the market and to take appropriate actions.
The guidelines are meant to apply and enforce the safety legislation. The
general guidelines on the promotion of safety in package services lay down
requirements on the professional skills of the service provider and on the need
to ensure himself and his personnel against compensation claims resulting from
accidents 272 . Because of the lack of European requirements on the safety of
services, Member States’ policies will have to close that gap. The Finnish
requirements might be taken into account whenever technical standards on
services affect safety matters.
2. Consumer service standards by National Standards Bodies
Major activities may be reported from AFNOR, BSI, DIN and NEN 273 . Some of
the projects are part of CEN’s programme bid under the Second Programme
272 See, 11/2003, under points 8 and 17.
273 NEN stands for Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut.
82