The Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs (SVRV) recommends strengthening the cross-border enforcement of consumer law through a reform of the CPC Regulation. The coordinated procedures of the CPC network should be better structured and accelerated in order to remedy cross-border infringements quickly and effectively. The SVRV also advocates, in principle, that the European Commission should assume a stronger role in cross-border enforcement. To this end, the Commission should be granted its own investigative and enforcement powers for particularly serious infringements with EU-wide significance. In the SVRV’s view, the concerns expressed in this context regarding the conversion of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive into a regulation can be addressed through appropriate legislative drafting. In doing so, it must be ensured that the well-established structures of private enforcement are not weakened. In particular, it should be explicitly clarified that the existing national rights of action held by consumer and competition associations, as well as competitors, are retained.
