Sale of refurbished products as new
Dear Legal Service,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
If a product previously sold as new on the EU market has been refurbished by the manufacturer to a 'like new' condition, is it acceptable to subsequently market it as 'new'?
Please refer to the specific legislation that would cover this scenario. I have studied directive 1999/44/EC and I did not find the answer.
In the case that a refurbished product may sold as 'new', what information if any is the supplier legally required to provide to the buyer?
Please refer to the specific legislation or guidance document that would cover this scenario
Yours faithfully,
Francis Kelleher
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping
[4]Ares(2016)4054329 - RE: access to documents request - Sale of
refurbished products as new
Sent by SJ ACCES DOCS <[email address]>. All responses have to
be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par SJ ACCES DOCS <[email address]> . Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr. Kelleher
Thank you for your request which we consider to be an information request
rather than an access to document request. Actually you do not specify a
document but ask for information on consumer protection.
1. Let me first of all inform you that the Commission
Directorates general (DG) and services in general cannot execute specific
EUR-Lex searches for citizens.
[5]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html
However, I had a quick look myself in EUR-Lex: As you
already studied directive 1999/44/EC, it might be worthwhile to have a
look at the national implementation measures which provide you with the
information and the legal context in your country.
[6]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/E...
2. The questions you ask are addressed on the following
Commission website which we invite you to visit:
[7]http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_r...
3. We invite you to further read about Directive
2005/29/EC[1]and its national implementation measures:
[8]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/E...
The directive prohibits traders from engaging in misleading actions and
omissions. Under this Directive, marketing and other commercial practices
qualify as misleading if they contain false information, or factually
correct information that is presented in a way that is likely to deceive
an average consumer. Should a trader advertise a product as "new" if this
is not really the case, this practice could be considered as unfair under
this Directive if it is likely to deceive the average consumer and to make
him or her take a transactional decision he or she would not have taken
otherwise.
4. Last but not least: in case you wish to ask access to a
certain document, please use the form on Europa, fill it in and be as
precise as possible.
[9]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/access_...
[10]https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc...
Why? Our colleagues in the Commission transparency unit analyse the
request and assign it to the right DG or service.
Your present information request should not have been sent to the Legal
Service.
We hope however that this information is helpful to you.
Kind regards
BRIGITTE ARNOLD-WOERTZ
Head of Sector InfoDoc
European Commission
Legal Service
Information and Documentation (InfoDoc)
BERL 1/90
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 295 08 47
[email address]
Legal service website on Europa
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/legal_service/in...