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7. Consumer Protection

Legal provisions for consumer protection vary significantly between EU Member States (for example, in Germany it is not legal to offer a life-time guarantee; on advertising targeted at children the Finnish approach is very different from the British approach). Existing and prospective EU rules (enshrined in, for example, the Distance Selling Directive, the E-commerce Directive and the Data Protection Directive) aim to protect the consumer, although some of these have a corresponding downside for business. A clear, common set of consumer protection standards still does not exist in Europe.

On March 3, 2000, European Commission announced the launching of a new approach entitled 'Making the virtual virtuous - towards a new approach to e-Consumers'. This is aimed at helping business and consumers to overcome the confidence barrier which hampers the development of electronic commerce in the Single Market.

The above discussed European Extra-Judicial Network (EEJ-NET, see section on ADR)), and the adoption of the Regulation replacing the Brussels Convention (see section on Jurisdiction) are part of this initiative. Furthermore the new approach promotes the development of best business practices to ensure a market environment where most transactions are trouble-free (e.g. the setting up of trustmarks on the web).

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