Il 9 dicembre, il collegio dei Commissari ha approvato una serie di proposte legislative che riguardano il mercato unico digitale, la proprietà intellettuale e i diritti dei consumatori.

In particolare, per quanto riguarda la PI, è stata approvata una proposta di Re;">·           The tangible goods proposal provides for an acceptable level of protection in several key rules (e.g. caps at 2 years the legal guarantee period, keeps the choice for the trader on the appropriate remedy).

Main concerns

·           Extending the scope of the digital content proposal to “free” digital content. This risks leading towards a slippery slope of excessive regulation on digital creativity. Even the UK, one of the only national legal systems that regulated sale of digital content, has chosen to leave free content out.

·           Limiting the new rules on tangible goods to (only) online sales could be problematic. This might lead to setting-up different unjustified contractual standards depending on the sales channel used.

·           Extension of reversal of burden of proof on the trader to 2 years in the tangible goods proposal. This shifts the proof of compliance exclusively to the seller which we consider highly unbalanced. So far in the quasi unanimity of member states (24) it is always for the consumer to prove that the bought good is defective after 6 months of the contract. Absence of a consumer’s duty to notify defect.

BUSINESSEUROPE will continue to be active in the follow-up to these proposals. We will also provide you with a more detailed assessment in the near future and start preparing BUSINESSEUROPE draft comments paper. We will also set a meeting of the Consumer Marketing Working Group in the beginning of 2016 to discuss them in detail