EU needs contract law fit for the 21st century

To adjust to the new digital reality Europe needs full harmonisation of existing national rules concerning online sales.

Reacting to today’s European Commission proposals, BUSINESSEUROPE Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: “We support the Commission because European business needs an EU contract law fit for the 21st century. What we have today is a complicated patchwork of rules which fragments the single market. Trust among businesses and consumers is essential and even more important when it comes to growing digital content markets.”

These proposals are the first legislative deliverable of the Commission’s digital single market strategy. We support the full targeted harmonisation approach which follows the logic of this strategy. This is the only true way to create a level playing field for business and consumers in Europe.  

BUSINESSEUROPE is however cautious about some of the Commission’s choices regarding scope and substance which could potentially dilute the advantages of these initiatives for companies. In particular:

• Extending the scope of the digital content proposal to free (of cost) digital content. This risks leading towards a slippery slope of excessive regulation on digital creativity.
• Limiting the new rules on tangible goods to (only) distance sales. This might lead to setting up different unjustified contractual standards depending on the sales channel used.
• Extending the reversal of burden of proof on the trader to 2 years. This shifts the proof of compliance exclusively to the seller. This seems highly unbalanced especially in the absence of any duty of the consumer to notify the defect.