Who: The European Commission
Where: European Union
When: 24 November 2016
Law stated as at: 6 March 2017
What happened:
The European Commission’s Smart Regulation policy has been running a Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (“REFIT”). The REFIT programme aims to simplify law, reduce regulatory costs and contribute to a clear, stable and predictable regulatory framework.
Part of the REFIT includes a ‘Fitness Check’, which is an assessment of whether certain consumer and marketing directives (including the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Misleading and Comparative Advertising Directive) are fit for purpose. The assessment is based on set criteria, which question the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added-value of the directives concerned.
In October 2016, the European Commission held its annual European Consumer Summit. Around 450 participants, from a wide range of organisations, and from national authorities to consumer organisations, discussed the fairness of commercial practices and commercial terms. Following the end of the 2016 European Consumer Summit, the European Commission has announced that the results of the REFIT programme are expected to be published in the second quarter of 2017.
Why this matters:
The results of the Fitness Check will provide the basis for the European Commission’s future policy considerations. Therefore, the report may be a good indicator for any future changes in consumer and marketing law.
