§1.2.2 Information established by other EU law as ‘material’ information

The UCPD provides that information requirements in relation to commercial communication established by other EU law are ‘material’. Article 7(5) 5. Information requirements established by Community law in relation to commercial communication including advertising or marketing, a non-exhaustive list of which is contained in Annex II, shall be regarded as material. Such information requirements are found in a number of pieces of sector-specific EU legislation. For example: — environment (e.g. Energy Labelling Framework Regulation (28) and related delegated Regulations, Ecodesign Directive (29) and related delegated Regulations, Tyre Labelling Regulation (30), Fuel Economy Directive (31)); — financial services (e.g. Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (32), Payment Services Directive (33), Consumer Credit Directive (34), Mortgage Credit Directive (35), Payment Accounts Directive (36), Regulation on key information documents for PRIIPs (37)); — health (e.g. Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (38)); — electronic communications services (European Electronic Communications Code (39)); — transport (e.g. Air Services Regulation (40), passenger rights Regulations (41)) — food area (e.g. General Food Law Regulation (42), Food Information to Consumers Regulation (43)). Such information requirements will often be more specific than the information requirements of the UCPD. Article 7(5) of the UCPD clarifies that such information requirements ‘ shall be regarded as material ’. For example: Article 23 of the Air Services Regulation requires air carriers, their agents and other ticket sellers, when offering flight tickets, to break down the final price by components (e.g. air fare, taxes, airport charges, and other charges and fees, such as those related to security and fuel). This constitutes material information within the meaning of Article 7(5) of the UCPD. Accordingly, failing to provide such information can qualify as a misleading commercial practice under the UCPD subject to the general transactional decision test, i.e. if the omission causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision they would not have taken otherwise. The concept of ‘material information’ within the meaning of the UCPD is discussed in section 2.9.1. Recital 15 provides that Member States can retain or add information requirements relating to contract law where this is permitted by minimum harmonisation clauses found in existing EU legal instruments. For example: Member States can introduce additional pre-contractual requirements for on-premises sales, which are subject to the minimum harmonisation clause in Article 5(4) of the Consumer Rights Directive.

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