Thursday 8 July 2021

EU Justice Scoreboard 2021

Today, 8th of July, the EU Commission released the 2021 EU Justice Scoreboard (here). The Scoreboard is a comparative information tool, and it presents an annual overview of indicators measuring the efficiency, quality, and independence of justice systems in the EU.

According to the Scoreboard, ‘[a]n efficient justice system manages its caseload and backlog of cases, and delivers its decisions without undue delay’. The report presents data on the efficiency of consumer law litigation. In particular, the report shows data on the average length of judicial review cases against decisions of consumer protection authorities applying EU law (regarding the enforcement of the Unfair Terms Directive, the Consumer Sales Directive, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and the Consumer Rights Directive). The data allows for a comparison between 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019. The most recent data (2019) shows that the Member States where consumer litigation takes the longest are Cyprus (around 1800 days, approximately 5 years), Greece (around 1700 days, approximately 4,5 years); and Poland (around 900 days, approximately 2,5 years). On the other hand, the Member States where consumer litigation is the fastest are Hungary (around 100 days, or 3,3 months), Lithuania (around 150 days, or 5 months), and Romania (around 160 days, or 5,3 months). Even though these results are not representative of all EU Member States (for example, Germany, Luxembourg, and Austria were not included in the study because consumer authorities do not have the power to decide on consumer law infringements), one of the conclusions to take is the stark difference in the length of enforcement of consumer rights within the EU. Nevertheless, several represented Member States achieved faster procedures than when compared to 2016 (with the exceptions of, for example, Slovenia and Poland).

Additionally, the report presents data on the length of proceedings by consumer authorities, including decisions declaring infringements of substantive rules, interim measures, and cease and desist orders (regarding the same Directives). The data presented also covers 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019. In 2019, among the Member States where consumer authorities take the longest to decide, there is Poland (around 600 days, or approximately 1,6 years), Greece (around 350 days, or 1 year), and Slovakia (around 200 days, or approximately 6,6 months). It is interesting to note the parallel with the length of court procedures presented above. On the other hand, among the Member States where consumer authorities are fastest to decide, there is Romania (around 20 days), Estonia (around 20 days), and Slovenia (around 20 days).

It is also noteworthy that, when measuring the quality of justice systems, the Scoreboard shows data on legal aid in consumer claims of 6 000 euros. It is worrying that, in 2020, several Member States (including France, Slovakia, and Romania) may not consider people with an income below the poverty threshold as eligible for any type of legal aid (partial or total). The Scoreboard includes many more interesting insights, and it is definitely worth a read.