26 November 2013: AG Cruz Villalón opinion in case Commission v. Belgium (C-421/12)
AG Cruz Villalón was busy in the last couple of days since he also issued an opinion today in the EU case against Belgium, in which it was claimed that Belgium did not properly implement Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. In general, the AG supports all three claims made by the Commission against Belgium.
First, while the UCP Directive is applicable to all traders, regardless of their legal status or the sphere of their commercial activity, Belgium decided to exclude certain professions from the application scope of its national law implementing the Directive, namely: representatives of liberal professions, dentists and physiotherapists (only misleading and comparative advertisement is prohibited in Belgium with respect to these professions).
Second, while the UCP Directive intends to fully harmonize unfair commercial practices in Europe, Belgium sets consumer protection level higher with respect to informing consumers about discounted prices. Namely, prices may be marked as discounted only if their price is lower than the lowest price that has been set by the same trader on them in the given month. Since the Directive does not blacklist a commercial practice that would inform consumers about discounted prices in other circumstances than mentioned in the national law, the national law may not do that either.
Third, the UCP Directive does not prohibit certain commercial practices as unfair that have been declared as unfair and prohibited in Belgian law: many forms of off-premises sales and travelling trading (the value of the off-premises sale may not be higher than 250 euro per consumer; health products, health plants or products made thereof, medical devices, lenses, metals, jewels, pearls, weapons and ammunition may not be sold off-premises). Since these prohibitions have not existed in Belgian law prior to the adoption of the Directive they should not fall within the scope of national provisions that could remain upheld in the transitional period by national legislators.
