The Omnibus Directive - Effects & Affects
LuxembourgPosted on 02 March 2023 by Team@LuxExpatsOverview:
The Omnibus Directive’s full name is Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers (OJ L 080, 18.3.1998, p. 27, as amended). The directive is also known as the Enforcement and Modernization Directive.
The Omnibus EU Directive has been created to impose additional disclosure obligations on sellers. The new regulations are supposed to have a positive impact on consumer rights and eliminate both ill practices related to publishing fake reviews and artificially increased prices during promotional campaigns. The Omnibus Directive is to ensure fair price cuts and help customers make deliberate shopping decisions. The new law, however, forces some important changes on both product pages and entire websites.
In the EU, the directive took effect on January 7, 2020. All member countries were initially obliged to implement all regulations that were necessary to implement the Omnibus Directive by November 28, 2021. However, due to delays in some European countries (including Italy, Ireland, Malta, and Slovenia), the deadline was changed.
In Luxembourg On 30 November 2022, a new law amending the Code of Consumption for the purpose of transposing Directive (EU) 2019/2161 (“Omnibus Directive“) (“New Law“) was published . The New Law entered into force on 4 December 2022.
Why do we have this law?
The changes are a result of unfair practices used by many e-commerce business owners. The EU directive has been introduced to:
- Protect consumers adequately for today’s times.
- Enable fair competition for businesses in selling products and services.
- Ensure price transparency during promotional campaigns.
- Eliminate fake reviews on the Internet.
- Prevent fake price cuts – more and more often, e-commerce business owners have artificially increased prices to cut them afterward and imitate attractive discounts.
What are the changes in the new law?
- Additional specific information requirements for contracts concluded on online marketplaces.
- Extension of the list of unfair commercial practices
- New rights for consumers in the case of price reductions of goods
- Insertion of common criteria for the application of penalties
- Strengthening the sanctions in cross-border cases
- Introduction of written warnings
Conclusion:
With the Omnibus Directive, consumer rights will certainly be enhanced in the context of online shopping, but new requirements also will be introduced for online businesses.
To explore more:
CL2011L0083EN0020010.0001.3bi_cp 1..1 (europa.eu)
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