Overwegingen bij COM(2023)155 - Gemeenschappelijke regels ter bevordering van de reparatie van goederen - Hoofdinhoud
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| dossier | COM(2023)155 - Gemeenschappelijke regels ter bevordering van de reparatie van goederen. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2023)155  |
| datum | 22 maart 2023 |
(2)In order to achieve these objectives, and in particular to facilitate cross-border provision of services and competition among repairers of goods purchased by consumers in the internal market, it is necessary to lay down uniform rules promoting the repair of goods purchased by consumers within and beyond the liability of the seller established by Directive (EU) 2019/771. Member States have already taken or are considering to introduce rules promoting repair and reuse of goods purchased by consumers outside the existing liability of the seller established by Directive (EU) 2019/771. Differing mandatory national rules in this area constitute actual or potential obstacles to the functioning of the internal market, adversely affecting cross-border transactions of economic operators acting on that market. Those operators may have to adapt their services to comply with the different mandatory national rules and may be faced with additional transaction costs for obtaining the necessary legal advice on the requirements of the law of the Member State of the consumer’s habitual residence, when applicable pursuant to Regulation (EC) 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council 13 , and to adapt their contracts for the provision of repair services accordingly. This will affect, in particular, small and medium sized enterprises, mostly represented in the repair sector. Legal fragmentation may also negatively affect consumer confidence in cross-border repair due to uncertainties regarding factors which are important for the decision to repair goods.
(3)In order to reduce premature disposal of viable goods purchased by consumers and to encourage consumers to use their goods longer, it is necessary to set out rules on repair of such goods. Repair should result in more sustainable consumption, since it is likely to generate less waste caused by discarded goods, less demand for resources, including energy, caused by the process of manufacturing and sale of new goods replacing defective goods, as well as less greenhouse gas emissions. This Directive promotes sustainable consumption in view of achieving benefits for the environment while also producing benefits for consumers by avoiding costs associated with new purchases in the short term.
(4)Regulation (EU)… of the European Parliament and of the Council [on the Ecodesign Sustainable Products] lays down, in particular, supply-side requirements pursuing the objective of more sustainable product design at the production phase. Directive (EU)… of the European Parliament and of the Council [on Empowering consumers for the green transition] lays down demand-side requirements ensuring the provision of better information on durability and reparability of goods at the point of sale, which should enable consumers to make informed sustainable purchasing decisions. This Directive complements those supply-side and demand-side requirements, by promoting repair and reuse in the after-sales phase both within and outside the liability of the seller established by Directive (EU) 2019/771. This Directive thus pursues the objectives, in the context of the European Green Deal, of promoting a more sustainable consumption, a circular economy and the green transition.
(5)This Directive should not affect the freedom of Member States to regulate aspects of contracts for the provision of repair services other than those harmonised in Union law.
(6)Reparability requirements should comprise all requirements under Union legal acts which ensure that goods can be repaired, including but not limited to requirements under the ecodesign framework referred to in Regulation [on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products], to cover a broad range of products as well as future developments in any other field of Union law.
(7)In order to help consumers identify and choose suitable repair services, consumers should receive key information on repair services. The European Repair Information Form should lay down key parameters that influence consumer decisions when considering whether to repair defective goods. This Directive should set out a model standardised format. A standardised format for presenting repair services should allow consumers to assess and easily compare repair services. Such standardised format should also facilitate the process of providing information on repair services, in particular for micro, small and medium sized businesses providing repair services. In order to avoid additional burdens due to overlapping pre-contractual information requirements, a repairer should be deemed to have fulfilled corresponding information requirements of relevant EU legal acts, where applicable, if the European Repair Information Form has been filled in correctly and provided to the consumer. Information in the European Repair Information Form should be provided to consumers in a clear and comprehensible manner and in line with the accessibility requirements of Directive 2019/882 14 .
(8)The consumer’s free choice to decide by whom to have its goods repaired should be facilitated by requesting the European Repair Information Form not only from the producer, but also from the seller of the goods concerned or from independent repairers, where applicable. Repairers should provide the European Repair Information Form only where the consumer requests that form and the repairer intends to provide the repair service or it is obliged to repair. A consumer may also choose not to request the European Repair Information Form and to conclude a contract for the provision of repair services with a repairer pursuant to pre-contractual information provided by other means in accordance with Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and the Council. 15
(9)There are situations in which a repairer incurs costs necessary for providing the information on repair and price included in the European Repair Information Form. For instance, the repairer may need to inspect the goods to be able to determine the defect or type of repair that is necessary, including the need for spare parts, and to estimate the repair price. In these cases, a repairer may only request a consumer to pay the costs that are necessary for providing the information included in the European Repair Information Form. In line with the pre-contractual information and other requirements set out in Directive 2011/83/EU, the repairer should inform the consumer about such costs before the consumer requests the provision of the European Repair Information Form. Consumers may refrain from requesting the European Repair Information Form where they consider that the costs for obtaining that form are too high.
(10)Repairers should not alter the conditions of repair that they provide in the European Repair Information Form, including on the price for repair, for a certain period of time. This ensures that consumers are given sufficient time to compare different repair offers. In order to safeguard as much as possible the contractual freedom for repairers other than producers of goods for whom an obligation to repair applies, to be able to decide whether to conclude a contract for the provision of repair services at all, repairers should remain free to decide not to conclude such a contract, including in situations where they have provided the European Repair Information Form. If a contract for the provision of repair services is concluded based on the European Repair Information Form, the information on conditions of repair and price contained in that form should constitute an integral part of the contract for the provision of repair services, thereby defining the repairer’s obligations under that contract. Non-compliance with those contractual obligations is governed by the applicable national law.
(11)Directive (EU) 2019/771 imposes an obligation on sellers to repair goods in the event of a lack of conformity which existed at the time that the goods were delivered and which becomes apparent within the liability period. Under that Directive, consumers are not entitled to have defects repaired which fall outside that obligation. As a consequence, a large number of defective, but otherwise viable, goods are prematurely discarded. In order to encourage consumers to repair their good in such situations, this Directive should impose an obligation on producers to repair goods to which reparability requirements imposed by Union legal acts apply. That repair obligation should be imposed, upon the consumer’s request, on the producers of such goods, since they are the addressees of those reparability requirements. That obligation should apply to producers established both inside and outside the Union in relation to goods placed on the Union market.
(12)Since the obligation to repair imposed on producers under this Directive covers defects that are not due to the non-conformity of the goods with a sales contract, producers may provide repair against a price paid by the consumer, against another kind of consideration, or for free. The charging of a price should encourage producers to develop sustainable business models, including the provision of repair services. Such a price may take into account, for instance, labour costs, costs for spare parts, costs for operating the repair facility and a customary margin. The price for and the conditions of repair should be agreed in a contract between the consumer and the producer and the consumer should remain free to decide whether that price and those conditions are acceptable. The need for such a contract and the competitive pressure from other repairers should encourage producers who are obliged to repair to keep the price acceptable for the consumer. The repair obligation may also be performed for free when the defect is covered by a commercial guarantee, for instance, in relation to guaranteed durability of goods.
(13)Producers may fulfil their obligation to repair by sub-contracting repair, for instance, if the producer does not have the repair infrastructure or if repair can be carried out by a repairer located closer to the consumer, among others where the producer is established outside the Union.
(14)The requirements laid down in delegated acts adopted pursuant to Regulation [on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products] or implementing measures adopted pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 16 , according to which producers should provide access to spare parts, repair and maintenance information or any repair related software tools, firmware or similar auxiliary means, apply. Those requirements ensure the technical feasibility of repair, not only by the producer, but also by other repairers. As a consequence, the consumer can select a repairer of its choice.
(15)The obligation to repair should also be effective in cases where the producer is established outside the Union. In order to enable consumers to turn to an economic operator established within the Union to perform this obligation, this Directive foresees a sequence of alternative economic operators required to perform the obligation to repair of the producer in such cases. This should enable producers located outside the Union to organise and perform their obligation to repair within the Union.
(16)To avoid overburdening producers and to ensure they are able to perform their obligation to repair, that obligation should be limited to those products for which and to the extent any reparability requirements are provided for in Union legal acts. Reparability requirements do not oblige producers to repair defective goods, but ensure that goods are reparable. Such reparability requirements can be laid down in relevant Union legal acts. Examples are delegated acts adopted pursuant to Regulation [on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products] or implementing measures adopted pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 17 , which create a framework to improve the environmental sustainability of products. This limitation of the obligation to repair ensures that only those goods which are reparable by design are subject to such obligation. Relevant reparability requirements include design requirements enhancing the ability to disassemble the goods and a range of spare parts to be made available for a minimum period. The obligation to repair corresponds to the scope of the reparability requirements, for instance, ecodesign requirements may apply only to certain components of the goods or a specific period of time may be set to make spare parts available. The obligation to repair under this Directive, which allows the consumer to claim repair directly against the producer in the after-sales phase, complements the supply-side related reparability requirements laid down in Regulation [on the Ecodesign Sustainable Products], encouraging consumer demand for repair.
(17)To ensure legal certainty, this Directive lists in Annex II relevant product groups covered by such reparability requirements under Union legal acts. In order to ensure coherence with future reparability requirements under Union legal acts, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of in particular adding new product groups to Annex II when new reparability requirements are adopted. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making 18 . In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council should receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically should have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(18)While this Directive imposes the obligation to repair on the producer, it also facilitates consumer choice of repair services from other repairers. This choice should in particular be facilitated by requesting the European Repair Information Form not only from the producer but also other repairers like the seller or independent repairers or by searching via the online repair platform. As consumers would need to pay for the repair, they are likely to compare repair opportunities in order to choose the most suitable repair services for their needs. Thus, it is likely they approach independent repairers in their proximity or the seller before reaching out to producers which may for instance be located at a greater distance and for which the price could be higher due to transportation costs.
(19)In line with Directive (EU) 2019/771, a producer should be exempted from the obligation to repair where repair is factually or legally impossible. For example, the producer should not refuse repair for purely economic reasons, such as the costs of spare parts. National law implementing Directive (EU) 2019/771 or the preceding Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 19 is already using the criterion whether repair is impossible and national courts are applying it.
(20)In order to increase the consumer awareness on the availability of repair and thus its likelihood, producers should inform consumers of the existence of that obligation. The information should mention the relevant goods covered by that obligation, together with an explanation that and to what extent repair is provided for those goods, for instance through sub-contractors. That information should be easily accessible to the consumer and provided in a clear and comprehensible manner, without the need for the consumer to request it, and in line with the accessibility requirements of Directive 2019/882. The producer is free to determine the means through which it informs the consumer.
(21)In order to encourage repair, Member States should ensure that for their territory at least one online platform exists which enables consumers to search for suitable repairers. That platform may be an existing or privately operated platform, if it meets the conditions laid down in this Directive. That platform should include user-friendly and independent comparison tools which assist consumers in assessing and comparing the merits of different repair service providers, thereby incentivising consumers to choose repair instead of buying new goods. While that platform aims at facilitating the search for repair services in business-to-consumer relationships, Member States are free to extend its scope also to include business-to-business relationships as well as community-led repair initiatives.
(22)Member States should ensure that all economic operators that may provide repair services in the Union have easy access to the online platform. Member States should be free to decide which repairers can register on the online platform as long as access to that platform is reasonable and non-discriminatory for all repairers in accordance with Union law. Enabling repairers from one Member State to register on the online platform in another Member State in order to provide repair services in areas that the consumer searched for should support the cross-border provision of repair services. It should be left to Member States’ discretion how to populate the online platform, for instance by self-registration or extraction from existing databases with the consent of the repairers, or if registrants should pay a registration fee covering the costs for operating the platform. To guarantee a wide choice of repair services on the online platform, Member States should ensure that access to the online platform is not limited to a specific category of repairers. While national requirements, for instance, on the necessary professional qualifications, continue to apply, Member States should ensure that the online platform is open to all repairers that fulfil those requirements. Member States should also be free to decide whether and to what extent community-led repair initiatives, such as repair cafés, may register on the online platform, taking account of safety considerations where relevant. Registration on the online platform should always be possible upon repairers’ request, provided they fulfil the applicable requirements to access the online platform.
(23)Member States should ensure that consumers have easy access to the online platform allowing them to find suitable repair services for their defective goods. The online platform should also be accessible to vulnerable consumers, including persons with disabilities, in accordance with applicable Union law relating to accessibility.
(24)The search function based on products may refer to the product type or brand. Since repairers cannot know the specific defect before a request to repair has been made, it is sufficient that they provide on the online platform generic information on key elements of repair services to enable consumers to decide whether to repair the good in question, in particular the average time to complete repair, the availability of temporary replacement goods, the place where the consumer hands over the goods for repair and the availability of ancillary services. Repairers should be encouraged to regularly update their information on the online platform. In order to build consumer confidence in the repair services available on the online platform, repairers should be able to demonstrate their adherence to certain repair standards.
(25)In order to facilitate obtaining the European Repair Information Form, the online platform should include the possibility for consumers to directly request that form from the repairer through the online platform. This possibility should be displayed in a prominent manner on the online platform. To create awareness of national online repair platforms and to facilitate access to such platforms across the Union, Member States should ensure that their online platforms are accessible through relevant national webpages connected to the Single Digital Gateway established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council 20 . To raise consumer awareness of the online platform, Member States should undertake appropriate steps, for instance sign-post the online platform on related national websites or carry out communication campaigns.
(26)In order to promote sustainable consumption of goods in situations outside the liability of the seller, the online platform should also promote goods subject to refurbishment as an alternative to repair or to buying new goods. To that end, the online platform should include a functionality allowing consumers to find sellers of goods subject to refurbishment or businesses buying defective goods for refurbishment purposes, in particular by enabling a search function per product category. Such sellers of goods subject to refurbishment or purchasers of defective goods for refurbishment should have access to the platform based on the same principles and technical specifications applicable to the repair functionality.
(27)The Commission should enable the development of a voluntary European quality standard for repair services, for instance by encouraging and facilitating voluntary cooperation on a standard between businesses, public authorities and other stakeholders or by issuing a standardisation request to the European standardisation organisations. A European standard for repair services could boost consumer trust in repair services across the Union. Such standard could include aspects influencing consumer decisions on repair, such as the time to complete repair, the availability of temporary replacement goods, quality assurances such as a commercial guarantee on repair, and the availability of ancillary services such as removal, installation and transportation offered by repairers.
(28)In order to promote repair within the liability of the seller as established in Directive (EU) 2019/771, the harmonised conditions under which the choice between the remedies of repair and replacement can be exercised should be adapted. The principle established in Directive (EU) 2019/771 to use the consideration whether the remedy chosen would impose costs on the seller that are disproportionate as compared to the other remedy, as one of the criteria to determine the applicable remedy, should be maintained. The consumer remains entitled to choose repair over replacement, unless repair would be impossible or it would impose disproportionate costs on the seller as compared to replacement. However, where the costs for replacement are higher than or equal to the costs of repair, the seller should always repair the goods. Hence, the consumer is entitled to choose replacement as a remedy only where it is cheaper than repair. Directive (EU) 2019/771 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(29)In order to enable the enforcement of the rules set out in this Directive by means of representative actions, an amendment of Annex I to Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council16 is necessary. For competent authorities designated by their Member States to cooperate and coordinate actions with each other and with the Commission in order to enforce compliance with the rules set out in this Directive, an amendment of the Annex to Regulation 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council17 is necessary.
(30)In order to allow economic operators to adapt, transitional provisions concerning the application of some Articles of this Directive should be introduced. Thus, the obligations to repair and to provide related information on this obligation should apply to contracts for the provision of repair services after [24 months after the entry into force]. The amendment to Directive (EU) 2019/771 should apply only to sales contracts concluded after [24 months after the entry into force] to ensure legal certainty and to provide sellers with sufficient time to adapt to the amended remedies of repair and replacement.
(31)In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents18, Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified.
(32)Promoting the repair of goods purchased by consumers, with a view to contributing to the proper functioning of the internal market while providing for a high level of environmental and consumer protection, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States. Emerging national mandatory rules promoting sustainable consumption by way of repair of defects outside the scope of Directive (EU) 2019/771 are likely to diverge and lead to fragmentation of the internal market. Member States may not amend the fully harmonised rules concerning defects within the liability of the seller set out in Directive (EU) 2019/771. The objective of this Directive can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, better be achieved at Union level through fully harmonised common rules promoting repair within and outside the liability of the seller established in Directive (EU) 2019/771. The Union may therefore adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve this objective.
(33)This Directive respects the fundamental rights and freedoms and seeks to ensure full respect in particular for Articles 16, 26, 37, 38 and 47 of Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It contributes to an improvement of the quality of the environment in accordance with Article 37 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union by promoting sustainable consumption of goods and thereby reducing negative environmental impacts from premature disposal of viable goods. This Directive ensures full respect for Article 38 on consumer protection by enhancing consumer rights relating to defects that occur or become apparent outside the liability of the seller pursuant to Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2019/771. It also ensures respect for the freedom to conduct a business in accordance with Article 16 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union by safeguarding contractual freedom and encouraging the development of repair services in the internal market. This Directive contributes to the integration of persons with disabilities in accordance with Article 26 the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union by facilitating accessibility to the online platform for persons with disabilities. This Directive seeks to ensure full respect for Article 47 on the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial through effective means of enforcement.