16 November 2009

The European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) commissioned 2 studies in relation to the proposed Consumer Rights Directive. The studies were presented and discussed in the JURI Committee during its 10 November meeting.

 The first study, The Potential Impact of the Consumer Rights Directive on Member States' contract law identifies and analyses the side effects that the "full harmonisation approach" of the proposed Consumer Rights Directive could have on national general contract laws or general sales laws. In particular, the study analyses the reasons for side effects of the proposed directive and provides concrete examples of such effects on national contract laws. Furthermore, it contains recommendations on possible action to be undertaken in order to avoid unwanted side effects.

The second study, A comparison between the Draft Common Frame of Reference and the European Commissions' proposal for a Consumer Rights Directive provides an in-depth and detailed comparison between the draft Common Frame of Reference and the Commission's proposal for a Consumer Rights Directive. Furthermore, it identifies those provisions of the CFR which could be used when amending the Proposal for a Consumer Rights Directive in the framework of the legislative procedure.

In this regard, the study suggests some amendments based on the CFR. A correlation table between the provisions of the CFR and the provisions of the proposed Consumer Rights Directive is provided in the annex of the study.

Both documents can be found on the Members Only/Background documents and analysis page of the DSE website.