§3.2.1 Main characteristics

Article 5(1)(a) and 6(1)(a) ‘the main characteristics of the goods or services, to the extent appropriate to the medium and to the goods or services’ Although this information requirement expressly refers to ‘goods and services’, by virtue of Article 5(2) and 6(2) it also applies to public utilities and online digital content. The same obligation is imposed by Article 7(4) of the UCPD that lays down the information requirements for the ‘invitation to purchase’. Accordingly, for choosing the main characteristics to be communicated to the consumer, the traders should apply the same approach as for the purposes of the UCPD, i.e. inform about those characteristics that consumers need to make an informed purchasing decisions. Information about the main characteristics for goods may be available from their packaging or labelling that the consumer can consult. More complex goods may require the communication of additional information to establish their main characteristics. In particular, all product characteristics and restrictive conditions that the average consumer will not normally expect from the given category or kind of good or service must be communicated to consumers, as those are especially likely to affect their transactional decisions (71). For all contracts where the consumer provides personal data, irrespective of whether payment is involved or not, the trader must inform the consumer about the purposes of processing at the time when the personal data are obtained.

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