In 2011, the Consumer Rights Directive was adopted to introduce substantial changes to ‘distance selling’ (including e-commerce) and ‘doorstep selling’ contracts. 

Why it's important

The original Commission proposal aimed to revise four directives abandoning the established principle of minimum harmonisation which would have made it impossible for EU Member States to keep or introduce rules which provided better protection.  

For consumers, that means:

For example, the new legislation provides better protection when shopping online against exorbitant credit card fees and “pre-ticked” additional services, as well as new information obligations on the operability and functionality of digital products.

What BEUC did

BEUC fought to maintain the level of consumer protection opposing the drop of minimum harmonisation which would have resulted in clear losses in several EU Countries. The directive was reduced to cover distance and doorstep selling contract.