On 19 September the European Council and the Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the directive to empower consumers for the green transition. The proposal aims at enhancing consumers’ rights by amending the unfair commercial practices directive (UCPD) and the consumer rights directive (CRD) and adapting them for the green transition.
On 23 May this year was published the Council’s negotiating mandate for a Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council amending Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information.
The current agreement, essential to allow consumers to play an active role in a greener and fairer Europe, introduces some improvements, like:
- the inclusion of unfair claims based on greenhouse emissions offsetting in the list of banned practices,
- stronger measures against early obsolescence,
- the clarification of traders’ liability in certain cases,
- the introduction of a harmonised format to increase the visibility of the voluntary commercial guarantee of durability, and
improvements in the reminder on the legal guarantee of conformity.
Author: Blanca Casares (AEIDL)
