Projects

Expertise and research work,

Study on the Impact of the Legal Choices of the Member States and other Aspects of Implementing the Directive 2008/48/EC on the Functioning of the Consumer Credit Market in the European Union

Belgium

Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO)

Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO)

The objective of the study is to assess, on top of the transposition check carried out by the Commission, to which degree the legal choices adopted by the particular Member States on specific element of the Consumer Credit Directive (CCD) impact the fulfillment of the Directive’s principal objectives, namely: • fostering an internal credit market in the EU; • providing a high level of consumer protection with regard to consumer credits. The contract will study: • The details of the manner in which the particular Member States used the options foreseen in the Directive and their reasons and context; • The manner in which the national legislation implementing the CCD is enforced by the national authorities, e.g. have there been any enforcement actions, court cases etc. The contractor will, to the extent possible, identify the impact of the legal choices made by the Member States with respect to the Directive on the fulfillment of its objectives and distinguish it, if possible, from the impact of any other factors, such as the impact of financial crisis, changes in regulation not stemming from CCD, or changing consumer habits. The comparison with the previous situation should be done, if relevant, with the period before the introduction of Directive 2008/48/EC. The study will involve various research methods: literature review, legal analysis, online survey and interviews with relevant stakeholders (consumer organizations, national banks, banks, non-bank creditors, regulators, industry associations, legal experts etc.). The project covers 27 EU countries as well as Croatia, Iceland and Norway. EPRD will be directly responsible for literature review and conducting interviews in 9 countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Portugal.

Start date: 2013-02-06

End date: 2013-09-30