New European Union Proposals for Distance Sales and Digital Contents Contracts: Fit for Purpose?

Abstract

The demise of the Common European Sales Law (CESL) left the European private law community uncertain about the future of European Union efforts towards further harmonisation. This uncertainty has come to an end with the publication, on 9 December 2015, of two new legislative proposals. With these proposals, the European Commission returns to the policy it had embarked upon with the 2011 Consumer Rights Directive, namely one of 'targeted full harmonisation.' Both proposals aim primarily for maximum-harmonisation of specific rules on conformity and contractual remedies in distance sales contracts and in contracts for the supply of digital contents. This editorial briefly discusses the novelties these proposals bring to existing consumer sales law and asks whether they are fit for the purpose they aim to achieve.