Online winkelen in toekomst mogelijk volgens Europees contractrecht (en)
The decision announced in Sopot may spell a breakthrough in EU regulations on online trading.
In the meeting of ministers of justice of EU states, which ended in Sopot on Tuesday, Viviane Reding, EU Justice Commissioner, confirmed that in autumn she will present to the European Commission the so-called European Contract Law, that is a proposal that will allow voluntary selection of community (instead of state) law while making online purchases. “We are proposing an optional solution, in which both the buyer and the seller must agree that they want to make the transaction according to these shared European rules,” minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, the host of Tuesday’s session of the informal Council, explained.
The decision, announced in Sopot may bring a breakthrough in EU regulations on trading online. “For the first time in the history of the European Union, the ministers of justice discussed a legislative initiative that differs strongly from everything we have known so far. Usually, we deal with the internal market and harmonisation of law, establishment of legal rules eliminating differences between laws of individual countries. Yet here, we are talking about complementation of the national law that serving regulation of transborder activity,” Viviane Reding stated.
According to studies conducted by the European Commission, as many as 60% online transborder transactions are never concluded due to the entrepreneurs’ apprehension of unknown legal systems, and the entailed risk of legal disputes with the consumer. The introduction of a uniform EU system of rules, which the buyer and seller could opt for voluntarily - will help to liquidate that problem, because both the parties to the transaction will be able to use the same transparent legal system.
During the meeting in Sopot, the ministers of justice of the European Union considered also a package of legal instruments serving to protect victims. “We want to devote plenty of space to the initiative that we have been supporting for months, namely the European Protection Order in criminal cases, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said. The European Union has already worked out an efficient tool for persecuting the criminal wherever he or she moves: this is the European Arrest Warrant. Yet we must remember in a special way about the victim, because it is the victim, who is harmed and has the right to move between various countries of the European Union,” the minister emphasised. He expressed further the conviction that the project will be approved during the Polish Presidency, and added that it will pertain especially to the victims of domestic violence.
During the meeting in Sopot, the Polish minister of justice Krzysztof Kwiatkowski also invited other EU ministers to participate in the commemoration of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, which will be held in Warsaw on 23rd August. “This meeting is not only to recount the events from the past, but also serve building law in a way that leaves no room for totalitarianism to be reborn in any of our countries,” the head of Polish justice remarked.
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