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Omnibus Directive – new obligations for entrepreneurs

The EU Omnibus Directive has been much talked about recently. This directive is linked to two other EU directives, the Digital Directive and the Goods Directive, which together introduce many changes to the sale of goods and provision of services for both traditional traders and those offering their products through other channels (e-commerce, omnichannel, online shopping platforms, comparison sites, search engines, marketing service providers).

The Omnibus Directive anticipates the necessity for businesses to change the manner of communication about price reductions, changes in sales terms and conditions, and it may also require changes to IT systems, information on websites and customer service processes.   Below, we highlight some of the changes that will be part of the implementation of the Omnibus Directive, as well as additional measures introduced by the Polish legislator to protect consumers concluding agreements outside of actual business premises:

• when advertising price reductions in stores or outside information will also have to be provided about the lowest price of the good or service in question that was in effect during the 30 days prior to the introduction of the reduction; in other words the price reduction has to be real;
• mechanisms to ensure that feedback on social media or a company’s website actually come from the consumer who purchased the product;
• changes to the trader’s information obligations when selling off-premises or at a distance; ????
• consumer protection will be enhanced for digital services (e.g., video and audio content sharing and other online file storage services, word processing or games offered in the cloud, cloud storage services, email, social media, and cloud-based applications);
• regulation of activities on marketplace platforms (i.e. online trading platforms that allow other entities to sell their goods – e.g. Allegro);
• prohibiting the use of dual quality products (e.g., selling goods of different quality depending on the market the product is targeted at).

The changes primarily apply to business-to-consumer relationships, however, given the current wording of the draft implementing legislation, some of the changes are expected to apply to B2B relationships as well (e.g. information on price reductions). It is also important to note a significant change in consumer rights introduced in connection with the implementation of the Goods Directive, i.e. transferring provisions concerning statutory warranty to the Consumer Rights Act with simultaneous modification of the existing provisions, which implies the need to introduce changes in the terms and conditions of sale for consumers.

In addition to regulations implementing the Omnibus Directive, Poland has yet to introduce implementing legislation related to the digital and commodity directives.

Legislation implementing the Omnibus Directive should have been implemented in EU member states by 28 May 2022. This means, that businesses cannot be held liable for the failure to apply the provisions of the Omnibus Directive (or the Digital Directive and Goods Directive, respectively) .

We would like to draw your attention to the need to monitor the status of the drafts and gradually prepare changes to sales procedures and information provided by business to consumers, inter alia, due to the fact that it is unclear how much time entrepreneurs will have to implement the changes if the amendments in question are adopted and what the final wording of the amendments will be. Below you will find links to the drafts on the website of the Government Legislation Centre.

Links:

• Commodity and Digital Directives
• Omnibus Directive