Activities of Ashley FOX related to 2011/2013(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION Green Paper from the Commission on policy options for progress towards a European contract law for consumers and businesses
Amendments (19)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. wWhereas contract law is at the heart of all national rules governing the behaviour of businesses and consumers in their markets; whereas the internal market remains fragmented, owing to the existence of 27 different legal systems and the risks and costs inherent in cross- border transacthe Single Market remains fragmented, owing to many factors, including failure to implement existing Single Market legislations,
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas a common European Contract Law would benefittoolbox, to create more coherent and consistent legislation and standard terms and conditions, would benefit businesses and consumers in particular, since they would be able to greater exploit the advantages of the internal market to the fullSingle Market,
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas in its Green Paper1 the Commission sets out a range of options for a European contract law instrument which could help the EU to recover from the economic crisis, develop entrepreneurship and strengthen public confidence in the Sinternal mgle Market,
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the negotiations on the consumer protection directive2 illustrated just how difficult it is to fully harmonise contract lawsumer protection contract law, due to its complexities, without undermining the common commitment to a high level of consumer protection in Europe and what limits this imposes on the process,
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the end product, a European Contract Law, must be must be realistic, feasible, proportionate and properly thought through prior to being amended, if necessary, and formally adopted by the European co-legislator if this process is to enjoy political legitimacy and supports,
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. WelcomStresses the need for an open debate on all the policy options included in the Green Paper and urges the relevant Commission departments to carry out a thorough analysis of the outcome of this consultation process; further stresses the need for a thorough impact assessment to determine how all parties, including SMEs, will be impacted and detailed estimates of the cost of implementation of each Commission proposal;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that a thorough impact assessment, which investigates all the policy options in the Green paper equally, including the possibility of taking no action, must be scrutinised in depth by the European Parliament and all associated committees before a recommendation is finally chosen and before work on the policy option begins;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Takes the view that the development of an optional European Contract Law could do mucha toolbox, to create more consistent and coherent legislation and standard contract terms and conditions, could be a proportionate and realistic method to improve the functioning of the Sinternal market and that Parliament and the Council should have final responsibility fgle Market; Stresses that an option that goes further than a toolbox should not be supported; Recalls that there are many other practical barriers to cross-bor determining its legal form and scoper trade, including language, delivery, cost, consumer preference and culture, which cannot be resolved by contract law;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Takes the view that the development of a European Contract Law would constitutes an additional, and extremely costly separate legal system governing cross-border contracts, although the Member States should be given the option of applying it to contracts concluded under their domestic law as wellwhich would add an additional layer of complexity and be difficult for a consumer to give informed consent to use, while a toolbox, to create more consistent and coherent legislation and standard contract terms and conditions would not, and would therefore be a much more realistic, proportionate and feasible solution;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Is convinced that a common European Contract Lawtoolbox, to create more consistent and coherent legislation and standard contract terms and conditions, would make the Sinternal mgle Market more efficient without affecting Member States'´ complex national systems of contract law and the operation of other areas of national law, including tort law, property law and intellectual property law;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Takes the view that Articles 114 and 169 or 352 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union would constitute the appropriate legal basis for an instrument regulating business-to-business (B2B) and business- to-consumer (B2C) contracthe question of whether there is a legal basis for an optional instrument of European Contract Law is unclear and that an early resolution of this issue is essential to establish whether the EU has competence to create such an instrument and in order to avoid uncertainty for contracting parties, the risk of challenge by the Court of Justice of the European Union or by national constitutional courts;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. NotEmphasises that the contract law provisions governing B2B and B2C contracts respectively should be framed differently, out of respect for the shared traditions of national legal systems and in order to place special emphasis on the protection of the weaker contractual party, namely consumerstraditions of national legal systems should be respected and that special emphasis should be placed on protection and the need for informed consent of the weaker contractual party, namely consumers; However, stresses that any new initiative must provide added value to businesses in order for them to opt to use it;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Emphasises the particular importance of facilitating e-commerce in the EU, given that this sector is underdeveloped, as a result of differences between national contract law systems, and has rightly been identified by businesses and consumers as a potential motor for and stresses that it is necessary to assess whether differences between national contract law systems could represent an obstacle to future growth;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Points out that individuessential components of consumer law applied to contract laws are already spread across various sets of European rules, soand that it would make sense to consolidate them into a European Contract Lawmportant parts of the consumer acquis are likely to be consolidated in the Consumer Rights Directive; pPoints out, further, that these existing sets of rules illustrate the need for a clearly structured, that the aforementioned Directive would provide a uniform body of law which consumers and businesses can readily identify; therefore, stresses the importance of waiting until the outcome of the Consumer Rights negotiations before any recommendation is made;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Takes the view that the regulatory focus of a European Contract Law should be the principlefocus of standard contract terms uanderpinning contracts: in the case of consumer contracts, the focus should be conditions should focus on the law governing sales, and, where appropriate, service and works contracts and the general provisions should contain rules on the definition of a contract, pre-contractual obligations, the procedures for concluding contracts, representation, grounds of nullity, that such a toolbox should not prevent consumers from the protection granted by the existing rules of private interpretnation of contracts, the performance of contracts, rights and obligations, in particular warranty rights, under a contract, the right of withdrawal, termination, statutory limitation, etc.al law (Rome I and Rome II regulations);
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Is convinced that the lawstandard form terms and conditions should be balanced, simple, clear, transparent and user-friendly and should not employ vague legal terms, so that European consumers in particular can understand it, althoughconsumers can understand them and to ensure that they will still receive protection of the mandatory rules of consumer protection in their Member State; Stresses, however, that due account should be taken of the potential interests of both (or all) parties toin a given contract;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Points out that consumers must give their explicit consent to the application of the European law and that the relevant provisions must not be introduced implicitly, for example by means of standard form contractsstandard form terms and conditions and that they should be informed that they would retain the same level of consumer protection provided by their own Member State;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Takes the view that a European Contract Lawthe toolbox in the B2C sphere must establish a very high level of consumer protection and that, should Member States nevertheless guarantee a higher level of protection, the annex to the law should make this explicitly clear;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Emphasises that the supreme test of the effectiveness of any final instrumentpolicy is the Sinternal mgle Market itself; invites the Commission to consider how best to encourage businessmen and consumers to make use of the new lawtoolbox and standard terms and conditions voluntarily; emphasises the need to include rules on the provision of appropriate information concerning its existence and the way it works to all potential interested parties and stakeholders (including national courts).