§1.3 The relationship between the UCPD and self-regulation

Article 2(f) ‘code of conduct’means an agreement or set of rules not imposed by law, regulation or administrative provision of a Member State which defines the behaviour of traders who undertake to be bound by the code in relation to one or more particular commercial practices or business sectors; Article 10 Codes of conduct This Directive does not exclude the control, which Member States may encourage, of unfair commercial practices by code owners and recourse to such bodies by the persons or organisations referred to in Article 11 if proceedings before such bodies are in addition to the court or administrative proceedings referred to in that Article. Recourse to such control bodies shall never be deemed the equivalent of foregoing a means of judicial or administrative recourse as provided for in Article 11. The UCPD recognises the importance of self-regulation mechanisms and clarifies the role that code owners and self-regulatory bodies can play in enforcement. Member States may encourage code owners to check for unfair commercial practices, in addition to enforcing the UCPD. When the rules in self-regulatory codes are strict and rigorously applied by code owners and/or vigourously enforced by independent self-regulatory bodies, they may indeed reduce the need for administrative or judicial enforcement action. Moreover, when the standards are high and industry operators largely comply with them, such rules may be a useful reference point for national authorities and courts in assessing whether a commercial practice is unfair. The UCPD contains several provisions which prevent traders from unduly exploiting the trust which consumers may have in self-regulatory codes. This is discussed in section 2.8.4 on non-compliance with codes of conduct.

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