E-commerce: EU-wide rules to protect consumers better and stop rogue traders
New powers for national authorities to check whether e-commerce websites geo-block consumers, track down rogue traders or even, subject to safeguards inserted by MEPs, order that websites hosting scams be shut down, were approved by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee on Tuesday.
Under this draft legislation, national enforcement authorities would be required to have a set of powers to detect and halt online breaches of consumers’ rights across the EU.
Internal Market Committee rapporteur Olga Sehnalová (S&D, CZ) said: “This regulation has a big potential to significantly strengthen cross-border cooperation between authorities in the area of enforcement of consumer protection laws. As traders increasingly operate across the internal market, we need efficient mechanisms when something goes wrong”.
“The cornerstone of the revised rules consists of a set of investigation and enforcement powers for competent authorities in all member states, with a possibility of redress for consumers. We also call for better involvement of all entities with legitimate interests in consumer protection, in particular consumer organisations, when tackling infringements”, she added.
Internal Market Committee chair Vicky Ford (ECR, UK) said: “The report represents a major step forward for consumers in the EU. Fraudsters don’t stop at the border. One particular issue is that scams pop up in one country and then reappear in another one. It is important to ensure that authorities can stay one step ahead of the scammers and not the other way around.”
