Regular readers will remember the two proposals for new Directives, one for contracts for online and other distance sales of goods, the other for contracts for the supply of digital content.

In order to ensure that consumer rights are aligned for face-to-face and distance sales there will also be changes to the Sale of Goods Directive.

Assuming that the UK transposes these changes (which is by no means certain) we would need to amend our own consumer legislation. For instance, the right to terminate a contract will no longer be available when the lack of conformity is minor. This would mean a change to UK law.

The reversal of the burden of proof is extended to one year but Member States can choose to make this two. This is longer than the UK’s current position of 6 months.

And Article 15 on commercial guarantees imposes a new product durability requirement on producers.

But the Directive would allow minimum harmonisation on the transparency