European UnionConsumer Rights Directive
Officially Consumer Rights Directive, Telephone Calls to Conclude Distance Contracts
Directive 2011/83/EU, Art. 8(5) and (6)
In force since .
A telephone contact rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- This Directive is addressed to the Member States (Article 35), which had to adopt and publish the measures necessary to comply with it by and apply them from (Article 28(1)), so a trader meets these rules through each Member State's transposing law.
- It reaches you if you are a trader, meaning a natural or legal person, whether privately or publicly owned, acting for purposes relating to your trade, business, craft or profession (Article 2, point (2)), and you make a telephone call to a consumer with a view to concluding a distance contract (Article 2, point (7)): at the beginning of the conversation, disclose your identity, where applicable the identity of the person on whose behalf you make the call, and the commercial purpose of the call (Article 8(5)). It does not reach a contract that Article 3(3) excludes, or a distance contract for the supply of financial services, because Article 3(1b) applies to such a contract only the Articles it lists, and Article 8(5) is not among them.
- Where the Member State whose law applies has used the option in Article 8(6), confirm to the consumer the offer made by telephone, and treat the consumer as bound only once the consumer has signed the offer or sent written consent; where that Member State so provides, make the confirmation on a durable medium (Article 8(6)).
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Each Member State's own courts and administrative bodies: Article 23(2) requires the means to ensure compliance to include provisions under which public bodies or their representatives, consumer organisations and professional organisations having a legitimate interest, as determined by national law, may take action before the courts or the competent administrative bodies.
What this law does
Article 8(5) requires a trader who makes a telephone call to a consumer with a view to concluding a distance contract to disclose, at the beginning of the conversation, the trader's identity, the identity of any person on whose behalf the call is made, and the commercial purpose of the call.
Article 8(6) lets a Member State provide that, where a distance contract is to be concluded by telephone, the trader has to confirm the offer to the consumer, who is bound only once the consumer has signed the offer or has sent written consent, and that such confirmations are made on a durable medium.
Article 2 defines a trader as any natural or legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, who is acting for purposes relating to a trade, business, craft or profession, and a consumer as a natural person acting for purposes outside a trade, business, craft or profession.
Article 2, point (7), defines a distance contract as a contract concluded between the trader and the consumer under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme, without the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer, with the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded.
Article 3(3) lists contracts to which the Directive does not apply, among them contracts for social services, for healthcare and for gambling. For a distance contract for the supply of financial services, Article 3(1b), inserted by Directive (EU) 2023/2673, applies only the Articles it lists, which include Article 8(6) and do not include Article 8(5).
Article 24(1), as replaced by Directive (EU) 2019/2161, requires Member States to lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of the national provisions adopted pursuant to the Directive, and the penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
Article 24(3), as replaced by Directive (EU) 2019/2161, requires Member States to ensure that penalties imposed in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 include the possibility of fines whose maximum amount is at least 4 % of the trader's annual turnover in the Member State or Member States concerned.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app sends automated outreach.