Consumer protection: Commission launches public consultation concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services

Today, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the distance marketing of financial services offered to consumers. The EU has rules in place to protect consumers when they sign a contract with a retail financial services provider at a distance, for example on the phone or online. Any service of a banking, credit, mortgage, insurance, personal pension, investment or payment nature falls under the scope of the Directive on distance marketing of consumer financial services whenever the financial service is purchased at a distance. Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice, said: “It is time to adapt our EU rules to current times. Consumers purchase financial services online more and more. This public consultation will help us identify citizens and companies’ needs so we can make the directive future-proof.”a  The results of the public consultation will feed into the Commission’s considerations for a possible revision of the directive, expected in 2022. The public consultation will gather experiences and opinions from consumers, retail financial services professionals, national authorities and any other interested stakeholders on the directive. The public consultation is available here and will be open until 28 September 2021.