Contract law for the supply of digital content (Directive)

In addition to online sales of goods, the EU Commission also wants to boost the market for digital content and ensure that it can also be offered and acquired across borders. With the proposed Directive, it wants to fully harmonise the guarantee rights and other consumer rights in contracts relating to the supply of digital content and thereby remove legal uncertainty and promote sales of digital content.

cepPolicyBrief

The Directive is a step towards the necessary full harmonisation of consumer protection law. However, it is doubtful whether the envisaged aims can be achieved. The harmonisation is not complete; the creation of a third set of guarantee rules further fragments consumer protection law and gives rise to problems of overlap. The fact that very different digital contents are subject to the same rules is also problematic.