Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2016)283 - Cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2016)283 - Cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2016)283  |
| date | 25-05-2016 |
Article 21a of Regulation 2006/2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for enforcement of consumer protection laws (the Regulation on consumer protection cooperation, hereinafter the 'CPC Regulation') 1 provides that the Commission shall assess the effectiveness and the operational mechanisms of this Regulation and thoroughly examine the possible inclusion in the Annex of the Regulation of additional laws that protect consumers' interests. Following this assessment, the Commission shall, where appropriate, make a legislative proposal to change the Regulation.
Starting in 2012, the Commission completed an external evaluation 2 of the functioning of the CPC Regulation. This was followed by a public consultation 3 (2013-2014), the 2013 Consumer Summit 4 , two biennial reports in 2009 5 and 2012 6 and the 2014 Commission Report on the functioning of the CPC Regulation 7 . An impact assessment was completed in 2015 to assess the need for a legislative proposal. The Commission also procured legal and economic studies 8 to support the evaluation of the CPC Regulation. Originally due by the end of 2014, the conclusion of this revision was postponed to also take into account the political priorities of the current Commission.
The Digital Single Market Strategy 9 adopted by the Commission on 6 May 2015 announced that the Commission will submit a proposal for the revision of the CPC Regulation in order to develop more efficient cooperation mechanisms among national authorities in charge of the enforcement of EU consumer legislation. The Single Market Strategy 10 adopted by the Commission on 28 October 2015 further reiterated that the Commission will improve the enforcement of Union consumer law by national authorities through the reform of the CPC Regulation.
The Commission Report under Article 21a of the CPC Regulation, taking into account the impact assessment report completed in 2015, presents the results of the assessment of the effectiveness and operational mechanisms of the CPC Regulation. It concludes that the current Regulation needs to be replaced to respond to the challenges of the digital economy and the development of cross-border retail trade in the EU. This Commission Report is adopted together with the Commission's proposal for a Regulation that will replace the current CPC Regulation.
This proposal for a modernised Regulation is part of the Commission's 2016 Work Programme, 11 and is based on enforcement cooperation experience of the CPC network since 2007. This explanatory memorandum sets out the reasons for the proposal, focusing on its main elements, and in particular on the new cooperation instruments that are proposed.
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
1.1.Policy context: the need for a formal cross-border enforcement cooperation mechanism
The CPC Regulation harmonises the cooperation framework between national authorities in the EU 12 so that their enforcement action can cover the full dimension of the Single Market 13 . The primary aim of the CPC Regulation is to ensure legal certainty in the Single Market via coherent enforcement of key Union consumer acquis listed in its Annex 14 . Existing national arrangements for the enforcement of Union consumer laws are not sufficient in a cross-border context. Effective Union-wide cross-border enforcement cooperation among public authorities is therefore crucial to prevent non-compliant traders from exploiting gaps, territorial and other limitations in the enforcement capacity of each Member State.
This is currently done through a mechanism of alerts and mutual assistance mechanism 15 , complemented by a set of minimum powers 16 that national authorities need for an efficient and legally sound cooperation across borders. There is also a mechanism to tackle malpractices concerning more than two countries 17 , whereby Member States, with the facilitation of the Commission, jointly address issues of common interest.
1.2.Evaluation of the functioning of the CPC Regulation
In 2012, the Commission hired a contractor to carry out an evaluation of the CPC Regulation 18 which concluded that the CPC Regulation had been beneficial for the competent authorities, consumers and traders and confirmed the appropriateness and relevance of its objectives 19 . It also pointed out that these objectives had not been fully achieved and that the Regulation had not been exploited to its full potential 20 . The main findings concern 21 :
• Scope of the CPC Regulation: the evaluation report suggested examining the need for the update of the CPC Regulation's Annex to ensure consistency between the sectorial and horizontal legislation currently listed in the Annex, in particular, in the transport and financial services sectors 22 .
• Constraints arising due to differences in national procedural laws and enforcement powers: the evaluation report suggested examining options to include minimum procedural standards in the CPC Regulation and to expand the minimum investigative and enforcement powers of CPC authorities 23 in order to overcome certain difficulties as regards the efficiency of the cooperation 24 .
• Functioning of the CPC Network and common actions, and the role of the Commission and other actors: the evaluation report pointed out that widespread infringements occurring simultaneously in several Member States may not be fully addressed under the current CPC Regulation 25 . It identified the need to provide further guidance to the CPC Network on how to use and coordinate common enforcement actions 26 , including the clarification of Commission's role 27 in these actions.
1.3.Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
The CPC Regulation has strengthened the enforcement of consumer laws across the EU 28 . However, a high level of non-compliance with the key Union consumer rules persists in the main consumer markets. The current framework does not provide strong and equal enforcement of these laws across the Union, something which is necessary to sustain a dynamic Digital Single Market.
Contents
The current rate of business non-compliance with Union consumer acquis shows that enforcement is suboptimal. The coordinated screenings of online e-commerce websites ("sweeps") carried out by CPC authorities since 2007 show rates of non-compliance with basic consumer rules, between 32% and 69%, in the checked markets 29 . These results are corroborated by the data from the European Consumer Centres: two thirds of the 37,000 individual complaints they received in 2014 concern cross-border purchases online 30 . Further, a conservative estimate based on a representative sample of five online sectors (clothing, electronic goods, recreation, consumer credit and package travel) shows that 37% of EU e-commerce did not respect Union consumer law in 2014. This generates a detriment estimated to be about EUR 770 million per year for consumers shopping online cross-border in the surveyed sectors alone 31 .
A legislative proposal is therefore needed to address the identified shortcomings of the CPC Regulation. The general objective of the proposal is to develop modern, efficient and effective CPC mechanisms that will reduce the consumer detriment caused by cross-border and widespread infringements to Union consumer law. This includes in particular reducing situations where important cross-border and widespread infringements are not detected or sufficiently addressed through the CPC framework and ensuring that consumer protection authorities reach similar outcomes regarding the same malpractices.
1.4.Consistency with the existing policy provisions in the policy area
The Commission proposes to modernise the current CPC Regulation, by deepening the level of harmonisation, in order to address the above issues and to boost the cross-border enforcement of Union consumer laws in the Single Market.
The proposal develops the principles of the existing CPC Regulation further in areas that require strengthening due to the increasing scope and scale of infringements in the Single Market and in particular in its online part. One such area is the cooperation to address widespread infringements. Among other instruments, a common Union level procedure is proposed to tackle important harmful infringements which concern at least 3/4 of the Member States, accounting together for at least 3/4 of the EU population. It is proposed that the Commission will decide to launch the common procedure and will have a compulsory coordination role in this procedure. It will also be compulsory for the Member States concerned to participate in this common action.
The proposed tools are a significant step forward in enforcement cooperation as regards effective, efficient and proportionate response to widespread infringements with Union dimension and with significant harm for consumers and for the Single Market.
Given that the proposed changes are manifold, the Commission proposes, in line with the better regulation principles, to replace the existing CPC Regulation with a new Regulation which consolidates these amendments.
1.5.Consistency with other Union policies
The proposal is also fully consistent and compatible with the existing Union policies, including in the transport sector, where the specific legislation on passenger rights provides for rules on consumer compensation 32 . It supplements the cooperation arrangements (exchanges of information among authorities) available in the sectoral instruments covered by the CPC Regulation.
The proposal does not duplicate the existing sectoral rules in this Union legislation. The existing rules will be applied to consumer compensation in the sectors concerned also in the CPC context, in particular to calculate the amount of compensation (e.g. in air passenger transport). The proposal supplements these rules by providing for powers and cooperation procedures to deal with intra-Union and widespread infringements.
The Regulation is consistent with the cross-border cooperation mechanisms under the Payment Accounts Directive and Mortgage Credit Directive, the provisions of which are covered by the CPC Regulation. In view of the existing cooperation mechanisms for intra-Union infringements under these directives Chapter III (mutual assistance mechanism) will not apply to intra-Union infringements of these directives. Chapter IV will fully apply to widespread infringements of these directives. To ensure coherence of action in the field of financial services the European Banking Authority should be informed about the coordinated and common actions under sections I and II of Chapter IV of the Regulation to the extent they concern infringements of these two directives (observer role).
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
2.1.Legal basis
The legal basis for the proposal, as is the case for the current CPC Regulation, is Article 114 of the TFEU. The proposal aims to remove distortions of competition and eliminate Internal Market obstacles (Article 26 of the TFEU) and it seeks to preserve and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the cross-border enforcement system for Union consumer legislation.
2.2.Subsidiarity
Consumer protection belongs to shared competences between the Union and the Member States. According to Article 169 of the TFEU, the Union shall contribute, inter alia, to protecting the economic interests of consumers as well as promoting their right to information and education in order to safeguard their interests. The borderless nature of digital technologies poses challenges for the enforcement of the Union consumer rights by public authorities whose actions are constrained by their national jurisdictional boundaries. Yet, online traders implement their business models and practices throughout the Union and even globally, without any boundaries.
Therefore, to ensure consistent enforcement of consumer laws across the Union and to tackle efficiently infringements of Union consumer protection legislation spanning over several Member States, it is necessary to provide harmonised provisions to coordinate public enforcement activities. In the absence of a Union framework for cooperation, the Member States would have to rely either on a large number of bilateral agreements or on long and cumbersome judicial or consular exchanges of evidence and documents. In addition, decisions against a trader located in another Member State would not always be enforceable. This would render enforcement in cross-border cases slow and often inefficient and would cause great delays and gaps in enforcement. Moreover, such a system could encourage the relocation of traders inside the Union to avoid compliance with enforcement decisions taken in one Member State. This would in turn distort the level playing field and competition in the Single Market and reduce consumer trust in cross-border transactions.
All the measures in this proposal concern cross-border situations or widespread infringements taking place in several Member States. The cross-border aspects of Union consumer law cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States’ individual actions. Member States alone cannot ensure efficient cooperation and coordination of their enforcement activities. Especially in matters that concern several Member States or the whole Union, coherence of enforcement outcomes needs to be ensured as these measures are based on Union consumer law, which mostly contains maximum harmonisation provisions. Therefore, particularly for those issues that have a Union-wide impact (widespread infringements with Union dimension where a least 21 Member States are affected by the infringement), the Commission is best placed to take up the coordination role, given the scale and scope of the problem, the need to coordinate many authorities and to ensure a consistent outcome for consumers and traders. In this regard the action at the Union level would produce clear benefits (compared to Member States’ individual actions) in terms of improved effectiveness and efficiency for all actors concerned.
At the same time, for the widespread infringements that do not meet the threshold for Union dimension, the proposal, in line with subsidiarity considerations, envisages that such coordinated actions would be coordinated primarily by the Member States. The involvement of the Commission in such actions as a coordinator would be optional, where appropriate, given the scale and scope of such infringements.
Furthermore, similarly to the current CPC Regulation, the proposal covers intra-Union and also, as a new element, widespread infringements that have common features and take place in several or all Member States. It does not cover domestic infringements which happen within one Member State only.
The harmonisation the powers of competent authorities stemming from this Regulation is limited to intra-Union and widespread infringements, for which the powers available to public authorities in national law mostly cannot be employed because their use is limited to domestic matters only. The proposed minimum powers to cooperate in the cross-border context cannot be introduced by each Member State individually because the jurisdictional boundaries would not allow their use across national borders, for cases which affect consumers in other Member States. Therefore, for instance, evidence collected through such individually nationally available powers could not be used in another Member State because it would not be legally obtained in that Member State. This is why the minimum powers that are to be used in the cross-border context need to stem from a Union-level instrument that surpasses national jurisdictional limitations. These jurisdictional limitations of enforcement actions of individual Member States are already recognised in the recitals 2, 5, 6, 7 and 18 of the current CPC Regulation.
2.3.Proportionality
The proposal does not affect the Member States' competences in enforcement. Some Member States may however need to adapt their national procedural laws to ensure that their CPC authorities can effectively use the updated minimum powers in the cross-border context, to cooperate and address intra-Union and widespread infringements.
The proposal, similarly to the current CPC Regulation, provides for a common set of minimum powers for all competent authorities in the Member States in the context of intra-Union and widespread infringements. The level of harmonisation chosen is necessary to achieve smooth cooperation and exchanges of evidence among competent authorities and to remedy the current situation where certain parts of Union consumer acquis cannot be enforced consistently and coherently in the Single Market because the competent authorities in some Member States lack the powers needed to investigate and stop such infringements. It does however not exceed what is necessary to attain this objective.
The proposal will therefore improve enforcement cooperation without imposing a disproportionate or excessive burden on Member States' authorities.
2.4.Choice of the instrument
Similarly to the current CPC Regulation, the only suitable instrument to achieve the above objectives is a Regulation. A Directive or a Framework Directive would not achieve the objectives as following its transposition jurisdictional boundaries and thus jurisdictional conflicts would persist.
3. RESULTS OF STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS, IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND THE CPC ASSESSMENT REPORT
3.1.Stakeholder consultations
Between October 2013 and February 2014 the Commission held a web-based public consultation 33 in view of a possible reform of the CPC Regulation 34 . Stakeholders were invited to give their views on how to improve the functioning and effectiveness of the CPC Regulation, focusing on three areas: (i) methods for identifying markets trends and infringements; (ii) need for additional powers to cooperate and common procedural standards for enforcement authorities; and (iii), given the constrained public budgets, whether and how coordinated enforcement at the Union level could help to address more effectively widespread breaches of Union consumer laws harming consumers and traders across Europe.
In total 222 responses were received that were overall sufficiently representative of all stakeholders directly concerned by the revision of the CPC Regulation 35 .
Additional minimum powers were well supported by all stakeholders (public authorities, consumer associations, ECCs, business and individual consumers), in particular the powers to carry out test purchases for investigative purposes; an explicit power (under defined conditions) to name infringing traders; the power to request penalty payments to recover illicitly obtained gains; and the power to require interim measures, awaiting the completion of full proceedings. These powers received more than 50% support by each stakeholder group 36 .
As regards consumer redress 37 the main supporters of these measures were authorities from Germany, Austria and the UK. Some other Member States (Eastern European countries, Italy, Ireland and Luxembourg) were more reluctant as they feared that such measures could be costly for the authorities, other authorities were neutral. Business associations were also less supportive of this measure 38 . On the contrary, consumer organisations strongly supported this measure (all 34 that responded in the public consultation were unanimously in favour of the measure) 39 .
Concerning standards to handle infringements within the CPC Regulation so as to overcome existing differences in national procedural rules, 88% of respondents supported the possibility of introducing common procedural criteria/standards 40 . Areas in which the introduction of standards was considered as particularly relevant and were supported by more than 55% included: the publication of enforcement decisions; access to documents; the collection of evidence; investigation of websites; and the acceptance of the results of an investigation by a partner authority 41 .
Almost all respondents (190 answered the question) acknowledged that widespread infringements require a specific action 42 . More than half of enforcement authorities would be interested in a single EU procedure to tackle such infringements; other authorities generally acknowledge that better coordination is necessary to tackle such infringements effectively 43 . Business organisations support the development of coordination of enforcement at the Union level as they clearly see the benefits of one-stop shop and uniform rules for their business 44 . Consumer organisations also strongly support the enforcement cooperation procedure at Union level 45 .
Practically all enforcement authorities in principle supported the improvement of the surveillance mechanism 46 . European Consumer Centers (83%), consumer associations (75%) and businesses (62%) have also called for more possibilities for them to influence enforcement prioritisation and to signal infringements via the alert mechanism 47 . Public authorities were more cautious about involving third parties in the market surveillance mechanism, as they fear that this could negatively impact the confidentiality of their investigations 48 .
These results were taken into account in the proposal to replace the CPC Regulation.
3.2.Commission Report pursuant to Article 21a of the CPC Regulation
In line with Article 21a of the CPC Regulation, together with this proposal the Commission is adopting Report assessing the effectiveness of the CPC Regulation. The Report presents the result of the review and confirms that the implementation of the CPC Regulation in 2007 led to the development of effective public means to safeguard consumers' collective interests across the EU.
The Report also identifies the challenges in the CPC cooperation. It confirms the main problems linked to the effectiveness of the CPC operational mechanisms, which were highlighted already by the external evaluation. The Report concludes that the Annex needs to be updated to extend the scope of the Regulation to important Union consumer protection legislation currently not covered by the Regulation. The following Union legislation are proposed for inclusion in the CPC Regulation's Annex: the Mortgage Credit Directive, Payment Account Directive, the Rail Passenger Rights Regulation, the Regulation on rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air, pricing provisions of the Air Services Regulation, and Article 20 of the Services Directive 49 . The Report stresses the need to increase the rapidity, agility, and consistency of CPC enforcement cooperation and thus of consumer protection, in particular in the online environment.
3.3.Impact assessment
The impact assessment report prepared by the Commission covers aspects related to this proposal. The Commission's Regulatory Scrutiny Board gave a favourable opinion in November 2015 subject to comments, which were duly taken into account 50 .
Five policy options were examined. The preferred option is the option to revise the CPC Regulation by extending its scope and strengthening its efficiency 51 . This policy option is implemented in this proposal. Although the preferred option entails a higher cost than 'no change' or 'soft law' policy options (1 and 2) it will achieve all the policy objectives at a reasonable cost for national authorities and the Commission, in particular compared to policy options 4 and 5. It will improve the effectiveness of public action and the governance of the Union retail cross-border markets that will become fairer and more transparent for traders and consumers. Cost of public action and transaction cost for economic actors will decrease. This will generally improve the competitiveness of the Union economy.
The proposal does not change the Member States' competences in enforcement. Member States remain responsible for their institutional set up and designation of CPC authorities and other entities under the CPC Regulation.
Consumers shopping for services and goods cross-borders in offline and online environment are affected by the proposal, as its main aim is to increase their protection in such markets. The proposal will partly eliminate the risk of consumer detriment, which consumers may suffer, e.g. when goods bought abroad are not delivered to them or when they are given misleading information about the payment arrangements or are being debited through default settings without their explicit consent. Consumers will benefit from a higher protection when purchasing cross-border, especially online. It was estimated for the subset of five online markets studied in the impact assessment that a decrease of 10 points in the non-compliance rate of 37% could reduce the detriment from an estimated EUR 770 million per year to about EUR 539 million, i.e. by 30% 52 . A new CPC action against a widespread infringement could reduce significantly consumer detriment across the EU. Although the actual reduction of consumer detriment in each action will depend on the individual circumstances of each case, it was estimated that for example the CPC coordinated action against the misleading marketing of in-app purchases reduced consumer detriment by EUR 68 million 53 .
Representatives of consumer interests and European Consumer Centres (the ECC-Net) may possess valuable information and expertise, but currently do not systematically provide this data to CPC authorities. They will be invited to do so in the new Regulation. This would help the CPC authorities to identify priority areas in the Union or warn CPC authorities about emerging cross-border or widespread malpractices.
CPC authorities and single liaison offices: currently they bear higher administrative costs as a consequence of cross-border cooperation inefficiencies (such as higher investigation costs). Due to the stepped-up enforcement coordination, national authorities will avoid duplicating their efforts. In particular, pooling of resources to address widespread infringements will lead to savings: for instance, one coordinated action can replace 28 national actions, resulting in net savings varying from ca. EUR 180,000 (in case of successful coordinated action) to approximately EUR 815,000 (in case of failed action) 54 . Some Member States may need to adapt their national laws to enable their competent authorities to ensure seamless use of evidence/outcome of investigations of other CPC authorities and to ensure that the additional minimum powers to cooperate in a cross-border context can be effectively used in line with national procedural rules. In the medium term, savings from coordination are estimated, which will offset the one off adaptation costs.
Economic operators: manufacturers, traders, sellers, online marketplaces, intermediaries, especially those that operate in more than one Member State offline and online, suffer from uncertainties and higher costs caused by the complexity and diversity of the existing 28 enforcement regimes in the EU. Diverging enforcement approaches among Member States require that such traders obtain legal expertise concerning each of these systems. Furthermore, all traders suffer from unfair competition from non-compliant traders, who have developed business models that allow them to evade laws and harm consumers from a different country. The proposal will increase legal certainty for businesses and more consistent and coherent cross-border enforcement will boost competitiveness of law abiding traders and improve level playing field in the Single Market. The proposal does not impose any additional legal obligations on the business sector.
Widespread infringements that affect consumers across the Union require a strong and consistent Union-level answer. The Commission's role in the CPC network will increase, in particular for the coordination of measures against widespread infringements that meet the Union-dimension threshold.
3.4.Fundamental rights
The proposal will have a positive impact on fundamental rights as it will permit to enhance consumer rights, in particular due to the fair and open access to products and services across the Union. In accordance with Article 52 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, any limitation of the exercise of the fundamental rights is subject to the principles of proportionality and necessity and effective remedies that are available in national courts. The Regulation will also ensure due process, transparency and rights of defence for the businesses that may be concerned by an action of competent authorities under Chapter IV of the CPC Regulation.
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
It is estimated that there will be approximately four common actions per year against widespread infringements with Union-dimension. This will trigger an additional workload for the Commission, estimated to require two full-time officials 55 to coordinate these common actions 56 . These resources will be obtained through the redistribution and refocusing of the existing personnel. The Commission will also incur additional costs in monitoring the functioning of the mutual assistance and alert mechanisms 57 . The Commission's total additional costs for its enhanced coordination and monitoring role are estimated to be below EUR 300,000 per year and these costs will be covered by internal reallocation of resources.
The budgetary implications are hence already foreseen in the existing Consumer Programme 2014-2020 58 and are in line with the Multiannual Financial Framework. The details are set out in the financial statement attached to this proposal.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
5.1.Entry into application and the CPC database
The proposal includes a delayed entry into application of the Regulation by one year to allow Member States, competent authorities and the European Commission to make the necessary practical arrangements and legislative changes. The existing implementing measures 59 will have to be replaced to take into account the changes brought by the proposal. The CPC database and the information exchange platform will have to be modified to take account of the changes brought by the proposal.
5.2.Explanation of the main provisions of the proposal
The proposal consists of 8 chapters comprising 53 articles and one Annex.
Chapter I – Introductory provisions
The Chapter defines the scope and the main terms used in the Regulation. Compared to the current Regulation it updates the definitions to take account the extension of the Regulation to widespread infringements and ceased infringements (infringements of short duration that ceased before enforcement measures can be taken, but which may be causing harm to consumers afterwards, such as misleading on-line advertising campaigns of short duration).
To ensure coherent and consistent enforcement for ceased infringements and legal certainty in the cross-border context the Regulation introduces a limitation period for the possibility to impose penalties (five years from the termination of such infringements) and sets rules for the calculation of the limitation period and for its suspension.
Chapter II – Competent authorities and their powers
The Chapter defines how to designate competent authorities and single liaison offices for this Regulation. It newly clarifies the roles of the single liaison offices. It calls on the Member States to ensure smooth cooperation among the members of the enforcement network in their territory. It requires Member States to ensure that other national authorities support the work of the competent authorities as this is essential in particular in cases where criminal measures are needed to stop the infringement.
The Chapter also establishes the minimum powers of competent authorities, needed to cooperate and to enforce the Union consumer acquis in a cross-border context. Compared to the current Regulation, further minimum powers have been added, such as the power to make test purchases and carry out mystery shopping, power to adopt interim measures, block websites and the power to impose penalties and to safeguard consumer compensation in a cross-border context. Some of the existing minimum powers have been clarified to ensure their equivalent scope and application in all Member States, for instance, the power to request information and documents or the power to conduct on-site inspections. The Member States retain the possibility to decide whether the competent authorities will exercise the minimum powers directly under their own authority or whether these powers will be exercised by application to courts.
Chapter III – Mutual Assistance Mechanism
The mutual assistance mechanism consists of two instruments: requests for information which enable competent authorities to obtain information and evidence across borders and requests for enforcement measures, which enable one competent authority to request another competent authority in a different Member State to take enforcement measures.
The mutual assistance mechanism shall be used to address intra-Union infringements, which affect consumers in one Member State but have a cross-border element (e.g. the responsible trader is located in another Member State). The Regulation newly sets out that the requested authority has an obligation to reply to a mutual assistance request within the time limit set by implementing measures. In addition to powers set out in the Regulation the requested authority may use other powers granted by national law to stop the infringement. Once a mutual assistance request is made the requested authority acts on behalf of consumers from the Member State of the applicant authority as if they were its own consumers.
To enable Member States with enforcement systems involving consumer organisations to fully profit from the mutual assistance mechanism, the Regulation defines the role of designated bodies that competent authorities may instruct to stop an infringement or to obtain the necessary evidence. The mutual assistance mechanism may be used in actions against widespread infringements (Chapter IV) in particular where evidence is located in a Member State that is not concerned by the widespread infringement.
The Regulation newly reinforces the mechanism to resolve disagreements among competent authorities in the mutual assistance mechanism. The Commission's in the mutual assistance mechanism is strengthened by systematic monitoring, guidance to competent authorities and possibility to adopt opinions upon request of competent authorities or of its own motion.
Chapter IV – Coordinated surveillance, investigation and enforcement mechanism for widespread infringements
This Chapter provides for instruments to address widespread infringements. These include coordinated actions (Section I), common actions against widespread infringements with Union-dimension (Section II) and concerted investigations of consumer markets (Article 32).
Coordinated actions to tackle widespread infringements that do not reach the thresholds for Union-dimension are a flexible instrument, allowing the competent authorities to choose the most appropriate means to tackle the widespread infringement from among those provided for by the Regulation. These actions should in principle be coordinated by the competent authorities. The Commission may take up a coordination role only where necessary given the scope of the infringement or where the infringement is likely to cause substantial harm to collective interests of consumers.
The section sets out options for coordinated investigation and enforcement measures. Where appropriate, the outcome of the coordinated investigation and assessment of the case would be established in a common position. To ensure compliance with Union consumer law the competent authorities may empower one authority to take enforcement measures on behalf of consumers in other Member States concerned by the infringement. The competent authorities may also act simultaneously in all or some of the Member States concerned.
Whilst it is not possible to delegate participation in a coordinated action to designated bodies, these bodies may be instructed to take follow up enforcement measures in a coordinated action. This is however possible only where the other competent authorities agree and if it is ensured that professional and commercial secrecy under this Regulation are respected.
This section establishes a new instrument to address widespread infringements with Union-dimension which are likely to harm consumers in a large part of the Union. It sets out the thresholds that determine which suspected infringements have a Union-dimension. The threshold is based on two criteria, in terms of number of countries and population concerned that both need to be fulfilled.
The Commission establishes whether the thresholds for Union-dimension are fulfilled and launches the common action by decision. It has also an obligation to coordinate investigation and other measures that Member States need to take to stop the infringement. Participation in a common action is mandatory for competent authorities in Member States concerned by the infringement. The section also defines the reasons for which the competent authorities may decline to participate in the common action. The Commission closes the action by decision where the reasons for closure are met.
The main instrument of the common action is the common position of competent authorities concerned that contains the outcome of the investigation. The common position should be communicated to the trader responsible for the infringement and the trader should be given the possibility to be heard on the common position.
The primary objective of the common action is to end the infringement and ensure, where needed, consumer redress through the commitments of the trader responsible for the infringement. Where offer of commitments is unlikely (e.g. infringements involving rogue traders) the competent authorities may proceed directly to enforcement measures needed to stop the infringement. This option needs to be available to competent authorities to ensure that traders do not abuse the procedure to circumvent enforcement.
For follow up enforcement measures, the competent authorities should select one competent authority that is best placed to take enforcement measures to stop the infringement. An agreement among competent authorities empowering one competent authority to act on behalf of the others enables it to act on behalf of consumers from other Member States as if they were its own consumers. Where necessary, the competent authorities may also take enforcement measures simultaneously.
This section provides for common provisions for procedures for coordinated and common actions, such as right to be heard for traders, role of the coordinator, taking of decisions and language regime. In addition, it newly establishes the legal basis for concerted investigations of consumer markets (sweeps).
Chapter V – Surveillance Mechanism
The new surveillance mechanism replaces the current CPC system of alerts. It combines the alerts under the current CPC Regulation with wider exchange of information that is relevant and necessary for timely detection of widespread infringements.
Other entities may participate in the alert mechanism through external alerts. Two categories of entities may be involved in the alert mechanism. The designated bodies and the European Consumer Centres are involved by virtue of the Regulation. The second category comprises the entities nominated by the Member States and by the Commission from among consumer organisations, trade associations and other entities with appropriate expertise and legitimate interest in consumer protection that may take part in the alert mechanism. The access to the alert mechanism of all those entities is limited to posting of 'alerts for information'. In line with the requirements of professional secrecy, they shall not have access to other information or alerts exchanged among competent authorities.
Chapter VI – Other EU-wide activities
Similarly to the existing CPC Regulation, the Chapter provides for coordination, cooperation and exchanges of information on other activities linked to enforcement cooperation.
Chapter VII – Professional and commercial secrecy and other arrangements
Professional secrecy is of utmost importance not only to protect the interests of third parties but also to ensure the effectiveness of investigation and to prevent the destruction of evidence. The Regulation ensures protection of professional and commercial secrets. It also provides that the information collected using the minimum powers under the Regulation will only be used for the purposes of ensuring compliance with the laws that protect consumers' interests. The Regulation further ensures that evidence and investigation findings obtained through the use of minimum powers can be used seamlessly across the borders, in particular where widespread infringements need to be addressed.
The Regulation replaces the biennial reporting obligation of the current Regulation with biennial national enforcement plans that should ensure the prioritisation of activities and a more efficient use of resources to combat infringements in the Single Market. Given the cross-border nature of the infringements under this Regulation, the effects of which extend beyond the jurisdictional borders of a single Member State, the Regulation establishes the principles for imposing penalties for such infringements.
The Annex containing the list of laws that protect consumers' interests determines the scope of the application of the Regulation rationae materiae. Compared to the existing Regulation the Annex is updated to remove legislation that is no longer in force and amended to extend the application of the Regulation to further Union consumer law instruments.
The extension of the Annex to further Union consumer law instruments should apply already before the entry into application of this Regulation.