BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) is determined to improve consumer protection to ensure consumers the same protection when they purchase goods and services offline or online, the EU's Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said here on Friday.
"On every occasion I heard the same thing: we need to make consumer legislation fit for today ... A lot of consumer legislation is not fit for the digital age," Reynders told a press conference after an informal meeting of the EU member states' ministers responsible for consumer protection.
He said the participants discussed the need to update the Consumer Credit Directive and the General Product Safety Directive.
"The European Commission also proposes to ensure that when people take out a loan on a mobile phone they get all the main information at a glance," he said, adding that it now takes up to 30 swipes to read all the information about a loan, which is why most people do not read all the important information.
He pointed out that six in ten consumers have been facing financial difficulties since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, according to a survey conducted in 21 out of 27 EU member states, which is why it is important to have "up to date rules" for consumer credit, whether offline or online.
According to Reynders, the General Product Safety Directive was adopted back in 2002 when nine percent of Europeans were shopping online, while last year the respective figure was 72 percent.
"We want to make sure that products purchased online are as safe as those sold offline," he said. Enditem
