The Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) and the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority will be organising an information session entitled ‘New deal for consumers package’ on March 27 at 10am at Europa House, Valletta.

The ‘new deal for consumers’ is a European Commission proposal to revise the EU consumer directives and is expected to be adopted on April 11.

The revision follows the fitness check of EU consumer and marketing laws and the evaluation of the Consumer Rights Directive, which were finalised in May 2017 and which showed that the current EU consumer law was still fit for purpose, but that some targeted revisions were necessary.

The proposed legislative action includes:

• Providing consumers with rights to individual remedies/redress against unfair commercial practices;

• Ensuring more proportionate, effective and deterrent financial penalties to tackle breaches of consumer laws;

•Introducing additional transparency requirements for online platforms, especially on whom consumers conclude contracts with when buying on online platforms;

• Extending some consumer rights to contracts where consumers provide data instead of paying with money;

• Simplifying some rules and requirements, such as information requirements and rules on sending back goods and reimbursement.

The new deal also includes a revision of the Injunctions Directive, with a view of fully exploiting the potential of injunctions by addressing the main problems faced by consumers in obtaining redress, and by diminishing significant disparities among Member States in the level of the use of the injunction procedure and its effectiveness.

Those interested in attending can send an e-mail to consult.meusac@gov.mt by not later than tomorrow.