Everything appears so far that we should see sweeping changes to consumer law affecting everyone by the end of this year. After all, with few exceptions, we are all consumers when it comes to the everyday purchase of consumer goods or personal effects.
The Economic Committee of the Chamber of Deputies will shortly be discussing the government's bill which should, with delay, transpose a number of directives of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU which significantly strengthens consumer protection. Along with this, the government has also decided in some instances to increase this protection beyond the scope of the directives.
The most significant changes to the Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Code concern discount promotions, consumer reviews, online marketplaces, off-premises contracts and distance contracts. For example, the bill provides for an obligation for sellers to indicate the lowest price of a product for a period of 30 days prior to the discount. In the case of consumer reviews, sellers are to be obliged to take reasonable measures to verify that the review actually comes from the consumer.
In the case of online marketplaces, the Bill imposes higher requirements for transparency in the process of creating offers displayed to consumers and their possible ranking. Therefore, the consumer should always know on what criteria an offer has been made to him. As regards the conclusion of distance contracts, newly it should not be possible to conclude a contract over the telephone.
For contracts concluded by means of a distance communication, a text confirmation of the contract will have to be provided to the consumer within a reasonable period of time. Finally, we would also like to draw your attention to the new contract type in the Civil Code regarding provision of digital content.