Directive 2011/83/EU - Numerous changes for online trade

Already on 23.06.2011, the European Parliament adopted a new consumer directive. On 10.10.2011, the directive was adopted in the Council. The Directive on Consumer Rights has now also been published in the Official Journal of the European Union as Directive 2011/83/EU.

According to Art. 28 para. 1, the Member States must transpose the Directive into national law by 13.12.2013. Furthermore, according to Art. 28 para. 2 of the Directive, these transposition standards must be applied from 13.11.2014 at the latest.

For the foreseeable future, online traders will thus again be confronted with comprehensive changes. However, the directive will finally introduce full harmonisation in distance selling law. Uniform regulations in distance selling law will then exist throughout the European Union. This will finally make it possible to carry out Europe-wide online trading in a legally secure manner. Until now, this was only possible under very difficult conditions due to the different national regulations. Since there are only a few exceptions to the principle of full harmonisation and in particular the withdrawal period in Europe will be a uniform 14 days, cross-border sales will be made much easier for traders in the future.

We will continue to inform you about the progress and in particular about the transposition procedure of the Directive into German national law.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions on this topic or any other issues relating to online trading.

Michael Ullrich, LL.M.(Information Law)
Attorney at Law and
Specialist Lawyer for Information Technology Law (IT Law)

 

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