Conclusions and recommendations
131. We recognise the importance of consumers'
awareness of their rights and consider that a clear and comprehensible
Directive is an important part of informing the consumer. However,
there is an inherent tension in providing a legal text that is
clear to lawyers and is also accessible to all consumers. We recognise
that the transposition of the Directive into national laws will
provide an opportunity to improve accessibility of the Directive.
In the first instance, we consider it essential that the Directive
should be sufficiently legally robust and clear for those explaining
the provisions to consumers, so that they can do so accurately.
We believe it would also be helpful for national authorities
to produce comprehensive guidance documents for consumers on their
rights.
132. We note and support the permissive nature
of the provisions on general consumer information. We agree
that, where already apparent from the context, the trader should
not be obliged to furnish the consumer with such information.
Nevertheless, we are concerned about how that might be adjudicated
should a dispute arise between the trader and consumer as to whether
or not something is "apparent from the context". We
recommend that clear guidelines covering this area are drawn up.
133. We consider that attention should be
paid to the need for guidance on how information should be communicated
to provide certainty to businesses and to highlight key information
for consumers, possibly through the use of summary boxes.
134. We are not convinced by the argument
that these provisions will overload the consumer with information,
though this is conditional on information being deployed sensibly,
in line with the requirements set out in Article 5. We consider
it important that consumers are given this information, regardless
of whether they read it at the time of purchase or not, so that
they have access to it in the future, should the need arise.
135. We are concerned about the possibility
created in this Directive for a reduced level of mandatory information
to be provided to consumers of financial services products.
We note that this is a concern shared across the EU and warn about
the potential impact of this on consumers who are sold such products
off-premises. We are concerned that this could create an added
incentive for businesses to sell financial products off-premises,
thus multiplying the adverse effect on consumers. We recommend
that financial services are excluded from this part of the Directive.
29 
