Lydian & Lexology Webinar "EU Omnibus Directive: what is the impact of the consumer protection reform for traders?"

The globalisation of the marketplace, the increase of e-commerce and the enhanced use of digital content and services had an important impact on B2C practices and created the need to modernise existing consumer protection rules.

The Omnibus Directive – adopted at the end of 2019 and applicable in 2022 – brings about this modernisation and establishes certain ground-breaking adaptations and additions to the existing principles provided for in various other European directives. 

However, it is already time to integrate these in your everyday practices. Indeed, in order to ensure that it is followed, the Omnibus Directive lays the foundations for the consistent application of severe, GDPR-like penalties in case of breach of consumer protection legislation. 

Considering the magnitude of fines in case of a breach, knowledge of the new (and existing) rules is essential for all companies trading with European consumers.

In this webinar, key aspects of the Omnibus Directive that companies and market (online) players should consider when they draft or review their consumer contracts and practices will be discussed, such as:

• More balanced relationships (changes regarding withdrawal right and extension of the list of unfair trade practice)
• More effective powers to enforce consumer rights (consumers’ rights of redress)
• Increased transparency requirements in the context of online trade (regarding price indication, professional status of the traders for instance)
• Measures against fake customer reviews
• Consumer rights in case of services provided in exchange for personal data of customers
• Increased liability for online platforms.

Register here for our webinar that will be held in on Thursday 22 October 2020 at 4 pm.