Representatives of European and national SME organisations, trainers, SMEs and consumer organisations attended the closing conference of the Consumer Law Ready project funded by the European Commission. The European CLR project, a consortium led by Eurochambres in collaboration with SMEunited and BEUC, aimed to train SME intermediaries and advisers in European consumer law.

The Consumer Law Ready is a specialist training programme for SMEs to help them comply with the latest EU Consumer Laws. The project is implemented by EUROCHAMBERS, BEUC and SMEunited on behalf of the European Commission.

Martin Prieditis, Deputy head of Unit DG Justice, briefed participants on the current policy context and the latest developments in consumer law at European level, such as the transposition of the Omnibus and Representative Actions Directive (RAD), the pending amendments to Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Consumer rights Directive on green claims, the forthcoming Right to repair initiative and the digital fitness check. SMEunited Secretary general Véronique Willems, who chaired this session, warned that misconduct by some should not lead to more burdensome legislation for SMEs, as was often the case in the past.

The participants were also informed about the results of the project. SMEunited Enterprise Director Luc Hendrickx briefed the audience on the main difficulties faced by SMEs and their organisations due to the pandemic. He stressed that entrepreneurs should not only receive information about consumer rights but have to be also empowered and informed about their rights vis-à-vis consumers.

For more information, please consult the main portal of the CLR project.