Follow-up on car rental case and enforcement of article 20 Services Directive

BEUC met the head of unit of the European Commission’s DG MARKT in charge of the application of the non-discrimination principle of the Services Directive (article 20) in business-to-consumer  transactions. As mentioned here before, the European Commission has approached several car rental companies and asked them to adapt their businesses models in order to avoid re-routing practices which prevent consumer from the potential benefits from shopping from different national websites. DG MARKT informed us that that they have made some good progress in this area and some companies have already refrained from using such illegal practices. We also discussed how consumer associations can cooperate closer with DG MARKT on the enforcement of article 20 of the Services Directive in a pan European scenario. We will discuss this eventual cooperation at the expert meeting on enforcement that will take place next week in BEUC’s premises.