§11.1 Public and private enforcement

According to Article 23, Member States must ensure that adequate and effective means exist in order to enforce compliance with the provisions of the Directive. Article 23 1. Member States shall ensure that adequate and effective means exist to ensure compliance with this Directive. 2. The means referred to in paragraph 1 shall include provisions whereby one or more of the following bodies, as determined by national law, may take action under national law before the courts or before the competent administrative bodies to ensure that the national provisions transposing this Directive are applied: (a) public bodies or their representatives; (b) consumer organisations having a legitimate interest in protecting consumers; (c) professional organisations having a legitimate interest in acting. Several provisions of the CRD provide for direct remedies in the event where the trader does not comply with the respective obligations. Specifically, Article 6(6), Article 10, Article 18(2) and Article 22 of the CRD provide for specific remedies for consumers while Article 21 prohibits the trader to ask the consumer to pay more than the ‘basic rate’ for post-contract telephone queries and Article 27 exempts the consumer from the obligation to provide any consideration in case of inertia selling. As specified in Recital 14 of the CRD, it does not affect national law in the area of contract law for contract law aspects that are not regulated by this Directive, including national law in relation to the general contractual legal remedies. Accordingly, Member States can provide in national law for additional contractual remedies. Consumers can pursue such remedies through individual actions. Moreover, Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council (156) on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers introduced in all Member States the possibility of enforcing also the CRD through representative actions. Such actions could be brought by qualified entities, seeking injunctive and redress measures on behalf of the affected consumers (157).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07