Omnibus Directive: consumer protection is growing

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Stricter protections for consumers during promotional sales periods thanks to the new rules of the Consumer Code within the 2019 EU Omnibus Directive also implemented by Italy which will come into force on April 2nd. Thus promotions starting from 1 July 2023 will have to follow the new rules. For traders, the obligation has been introduced to indicate the lowest selling price practiced in the previous 30 days for a product in the event of a discount or price reduction announcement. New hypotheses of practices that are in any case incorrect and therefore sanctioned have also been introduced. As far as consumers are concerned, the 30-day withdrawal period applies to contracts concluded in the context of ‘unsolicited’ home visits and organized excursions to sell products. In the event of infringements of the Consumer Code, the Agcm will apply to resellers the rules that provide for penalties of up to 10 million euros or/and 4% of the turnover, above all for incorrect practices and vexatious clauses. The result is a strengthening of consumer protections. «The protection of competition and consumers are a fundamental issue for the consumer market – explains Mario Resca, president of Confimprese -. Stabilizes the relationship of trust between retailers and customers regulated in Italy by the 2005 Consumer Code which includes most of the provisions issued by the European Union over the last twenty-five years for consumer protection, but precise indications are needed to avoid different interpretations by of control bodies locally and penalties for operators. Confimprese has always supported the interests of the category with the aim of simplifying the dialogue between companies and the PA, rationalizing sector regulations and promoting competition and the free market to put operators in a position to compete on the global market through the correct application of the laws approved in Europe”.

What is excluded

A number of commercial activities are not subject to the obligation to indicate the previous price. Among these are activities with price reductions with an indeterminate object, discount vouchers, conditional vouchers or vouchers intended for certain types of customers, advertisements such as, for example, «always low prices» and «low and fixed», online shopping cart discounts not previously advertised or that are not targeted at all consumers. On the details, the operators are waiting for the FaQ from the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy. The new rules also do not apply to agricultural products and perishable food products, all types of fresh milk. For goods placed on the market for less than a month, the period of time to which the previous price refers must be indicated, with the sole exception of “launch prices”. Also exempt are pre-packaged foods with an expiry date or minimum shelf life of no more than 60 days, bulk foods to be consumed within 60 days and ending with all agricultural and food products which by their nature or during their transformation stage could become unsuitable for sale within 30 days of harvesting, production or processing. A set of more complex rules that sellers must follow. «In the field of competition – adds Davide Guardamagna, partner of the Gealex Guardamagna & Associati studio – the role of the lawyer is increasingly assuming a fundamental value, because he is called to accompany entrepreneurial decisions along a path full of pitfalls, not just regulations, with the objective of mitigating as much as possible the risk of incurring sanctions and also opening up other European markets and local regulations”.

Who does not have to display the previous price

Merchants must not display the previous price in the case of new products, products which they did not sell in the previous thirty days. The same happens in the case of bundled sales, such as offers of two or more products at a special price lower than the sum of the prices of the single ones, in the case of products with a new product code (EAN) or range changes or new versions and for prices charged on special occasions such as new openings, renovations or anniversaries of the store, as they are similar to launch prices and excluded from the application of the below cost legislation. Also on these points, the Ministry’s FAQs are awaited.