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In order to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market (based on a high level of consumer and environmental protection) and making progress in the green transition, the consumers shall be fully informed on purchasing conditions. In March 2024, the new directive obliged the member states by March 2026 to adopt necessary measures to comply with the directive. The Commission exerts necessary coordination and control.
Background
Consumer protection cooperation (CPC) is a network of national authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU consumer protection laws: the Commission’s coordination helps to tackle infringements of consumer law occurring in the Single Market.
Specific rules have been introduced in the EU’s consumer law to tackle unfair commercial practices that mislead consumers and prevent them from making sustainable consumption choices, such as practices associated with the early obsolescence of goods, misleading environmental claims (‘green-washing’), misleading information about the social characteristics of products or traders’ businesses, or non-transparent and non-credible sustainability labels. These rules will enable competent national bodies to effectively address such practices: they will ensure that environmental claims are fair, understandable and reliable to allow traders to operate on a level playing field and will enable consumers to choose products that are genuinely better for the environment than competing products.
The legal regime (described in the Consumer Rights Directive and the e-Commerce Directive) encourages competition leading to more environmentally sustainable products, thereby reducing the negative impact on the environment; traders’ commercial practices must not mislead consumers and shall comply with the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. When selling second-hand goods, traders should also respect their obligations regarding the legal guarantee of conformity stated in the Sales of Goods Directive. The new Directive (once transposed by the member states into national law) will ensure that consumers are provided with better information on the durability and reparability of goods and the consumer’s legal guarantee rights at the point of sale. It will also strengthen consumer protection rules against green washing and early obsolescence practices.
Source and citation from: Directive 2024/825 (amending Directives 2005/29 and 2011/83) as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and through better information, in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/825/oj
Present situation
Investigation by the Commission and national consumer authorities finds that nearly half of second-hand online traders fail to correctly inform consumers of their return rights.
This March, the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities released the results of a screening (‘sweep’) of online traders selling second-hand goods, such as clothes, electronic equipment or toys.
‘Sweeps’ are coordinated by the European Commission and carried out simultaneously by national enforcement authorities. The objective of this sweep was to verify whether the practices of these traders are compliant with EU consumer law. Consumer authorities checked 356 online traders and identified 185 (52%) as potentially in breach of EU consumer law.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/ip_25_706
Commission notes that out of the total amount of traders screened:
= 40% did not inform consumers of their right of withdrawal in a clear manner, such as the right to return the product within 14 days without justification or cost;
= 45% did not correctly inform consumers of their right to return faulty goods or goods that do not look or work as advertised;
= 57% did not respect the minimum period of one year legal guarantee for second-hand goods;
= Out of 34% of traders that presented environmental claims on their website 20% were not sufficiently substantiated and 28% were manifestly false, deceptive, or likely to qualify as unfair commercial practices;
= 5% did not provide their identity correctly, and 8% did not provide the total price of the product, including taxes.
Consumer authorities will now decide whether to take action against the 185 traders that were earmarked for further investigation and request compliance according to their national procedures.
The main sectors of activity concerned are clothes, accessories, electronic equipment, toys and gaming items, books, household appliances, interior design and furniture, CDs and vinyl, childcare products, cars (including electric cars), sport items, spare parts, motorbikes and bikes, gardening items, do-it-yourself and others.
Sustainable consumption
The new Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition is aimed at ensuring that consumers are provided with better information at the point of sale on the durability and reparability of goods and the consumer’s legal guarantee rights. It will also strengthen consumer protection rules against green-washing and early obsolescence practices.
The new Directive amends two existing consumer law Directives: the Consumer Rights Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. It will make EU horizontal consumer law better fit for the green transition and will support the changes needed in consumer behavior to achieve climate and environmental objectives under the European Green Deal. The proposal was announced in the New Consumer Agenda and the Circular Economy Action Plan.
Source: Directive 2024/825 cited above at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/825/oj
Perspectives are the following: a) by 27 September 2025, the Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, specify the design and content the harmonised label on commercial guarantees of durability offered by producers and of the harmonised notice on the legal guarantee; b) by 27 March 2026, the EU member states shall transpose the Directive; and c) from 27 September 2026, the Directive shall enter into application.
More information in the following Commission’s weblinks: = Consumer Protection Cooperation Network; = Consumer Rights Directive; = Unfair Commercial Practices Directive; = Sale of Goods Directive; = Sustainable Consumption; and = New EU rules to empower consumers for the green transition enter into force.