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Spotlight on ...

THE OMNIBUS

DIRECTIVE

Text: Alan Rhode, Co-Founder Taxmen, Enrico Caruso

When it comes to protecting consumers, the European Union certainly doesn’t shy away.
It is indeed to strengthen the protections offered to consumers—especially given the
constant growth of sales on digital channels—that the Directive (EU) 2019/2161 (the
“Omnibus Directive”) was approved in 2019.

U countries were required to transpose the rules on consumer protection to the new tendencies of the
Omnibus Directive in their national laws digital economy. In particular, the Omnibus Directive provides
Eby 28 November 2021 and to apply the new for greater transparency, removes some disproportionate
national laws from 28 May 2022. However, transpo- obligations for businesses, and imposes on the latter the duty to
sition is still pending in some EU Member States, inform consumers about the criteria used to rank offers.
including, for instance, Italy (against which the
European Commission has thus started an infringe- Product discounts
ment procedure). The Omnibus Directive specifies how product discounts should
be shown on websites. In this instance, the seller must always
The Omnibus Directive is part of the European Union’s “New show the full original price, i.e., the price the product was
Deal for Consumers,” and it focuses on enhancing EU consumer displayed at during the 30 days preceding the discount, alongside
protection with special attention to unfair terms, misleading the reduced price. The indication of a price reduction, possibly in
prices, and unfair commercial practices. For instance, Article percentage, too, must be shown on each product.
2, which is dedicated to price reductions, is the first European
regulation to deal with the subject in a consistent and organic The reason behind this provision is to prevent those cases where
way. the initial price is artificially increased for a short timeframe and
then suddenly reduced to mislead consumers on the extent of
The basic aim behind this new legal framework is to align the the price reduction.

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