BETA

Activities of Zuzana ROITHOVÁ related to 2008/2126(INI)

Plenary speeches (1)

Misleading business directories (debate)
2016/11/22
Dossiers: 2008/2126(INI)

Amendments (7)

Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for Member States to cooperate actively to bring an end to the practices of misleading directory companies and any similar activities, to conduct an information campaign in their countries and thus to increase their citizens’ awareness regarding misleading activities of this nature, and calls for consumer organisations to be involved in the campaign;
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls upon the Commission – in view of the large number of directory- company victims – to create an Internet portal which would warn consumers about misleading activities of this nature, provide them with detailed information concerning such activities and offer advice on how to avoid being misled in such a way (and in cases where consumers have already been misled, on how they should protect themselves and to whom they should turn).
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Calls upon the Commission (and through it upon the European Consumer Centres and the Solvit network) to become actively involved in the provision of cooperation and assistance to those who fall victim to the operators of misleading directory companies.
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Calls upon the Member States’ supervisory bodies – in accordance with their mission and with the responsibilities conferred upon them pursuant to their country's domestic law and to EU legislation, in particular European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of 27 October 2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws (Regulation on consumer protection cooperation)1 – to take joint action to prevent any further spread of directory companies' misleading practices and to introduce effective measures which will put directory companies out of business and enable those who run them to be punished. ________ 1 OJ L 364, 9.12.2004, p. 1
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7d. Considers that the directory companies’ practices as described are not only inconsistent with decent behaviour and with the standards of fair trading, they also mostly bear the hallmark of fraud and of other criminal acts and offences, and hence calls upon the appropriate supervisory bodies, police forces and public prosecutor's offices in the Member States – and also upon Europol and Eurojust – to carry out a detailed investigation into the organisers’ practices, possibly leading to the bringing of charges against those actually guilty on EU territory; should they come from third countries, calls upon the Commission to make every effort to conclude international agreements with the countries concerned, pursuant to Article 18 of Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004.
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 e (new)
7e. Calls upon the Commission – with a view to outlawing directory companies’ misleading practices – to consider carefully the following measures: - the mandatory section of an order should be standardised in such a way as to ensure that it contains agreements which are in accordance with decent behaviour and which transparently define basic legal relationships (including a clear statement of price); the content of that section could be verifiable by the appropriate bodies within the Member States (such as the trading-standards inspectorate or the authorities responsible for protecting personal data); - form-based contracts/orders where the weaker party to the contract has no possibility of altering the contract/order and can only accept or reject it should be subject to similar rules as apply to unfair commercial practices, even if the weaker party to the contract is not a consumer; - form-based contracts/orders should be subject to an ‘average consumer’ test similar to the one which applies to unfair commercial practices, even if the weaker party to the contract is not a consumer; - the principle should be introduced whereby if a significant number of individuals are ‘misled’ by the text of a form-based contract/order, the burden of proof would be reversed and the directory company would have to prove that the text of the form-based contract/order would not mislead a 'sound financial manager;
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 f (new)
7f. Points out to the Commission that misleading practices of this nature on the part of directory companies are targeted not only at entrepreneurs but also at natural persons (including political representatives) who are not engaged in business but who receive offers concerning fictitious entries in biographical publications (such as ‘Who's Who’, Personality of the Year in a given field, and so on) and based on the same dishonest principle, hence future measures must also outlaw misleading practices of this kind.
2008/07/17
Committee: IMCO