Supplementary memorandum by The Timeshare
Consumers Association
Following the hearing of the Select Committee
last Thursday I promised to provide you with further, written,
information.
Our views on the provisions in the new Directive
relating to judicial, administrational and out-of-court redress.
The general statement in the Directive in respect
of judicial and administration requirements by national governments
is vague and little better than the existing directive leaving
each state to act as it feels fit without any form of harmonisation.
(a) We believe that clear guidance should be
provided by the Directive on penalties for specific infringements
otherwise the "soft" countries such as Spain will continue
to provide a lassie faire environment in which traders can continue
to operate outside the law with impunity.
(b) Our suggestion is that a "menu"
of offences and fines be included within the Directive (or as
an annex) to provide traders and consumers with clear guidance
on effect of breaches of the law throughout the EU.
We believe that an EU wide out-of-court settlement
scheme would not only provide redress for consumers but would
also act as a deterrent to discourage trades from breaches of
the law—reducing the work of enforcement authorities. The
Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK provides a good model for
such a scheme by providing:
(c) Easy consumer access.
(d) Speedy resolution of disputes.
(e) No cost to consumers (traders pay £405
for each referral to the Service).
However enforcement of decisions of this "Timeshare
Ombudsman Service" would require a system of licensing (or
similar) which the European Commission has already informally
indicated lack of enthusiasm for.
And think the Committee may be interested in
reasonably recent statistics relating to the overall size of the
industry in Europe which are on our website at www.timeshare.org.uk/stats.html
17 July 2007
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