The European Commission (“EC“) has published a summary of the results from a public consultation it held relating to a revision of the EU consumer law directives.

Launched on June 30, 2017, the consultation aimed to gather relevant opinions from consumers and businesses on how to improve EU consumer law and ran until October 8, 2017.

In total, 414 responses were received in the consultation, with a mix of individual citizens, companies, business and consumer associations, public bodies and member states responding. The highest number of responses came from Germany.

A summary document of the responses (available here) groups the responses into a number of categories.

The Commission plans to take the results of the consultation into account in preparation of its Impact Assessment on a targeted revision of the relevant EU consumer law directives. This Impact Assessment will primarily consider legislative amendments to the current consumer law framework and will aim to, inter alia:

• Extend consumer rights to contracts where consumers provide data rather than pay with money;
• Simplify certain rules and requirements;
• Provide further transparency on whom consumers conclude contracts with when buying online and whether relevant EU consumer rights are applicable to such contracts; and
• Improve potential remedies for consumers that have been harmed by unfair commercial practices.