§2.3.1 After-sales practices, including debt collection activities

Under Article 3(1), commercial practices occur not only during the marketing and supply stages, but also after the transaction has been made (after-sales stage), which can be covered by the scope of the UCPD. Recital 13 of the UCPD also refers to ‘unfair commercial practices which occur outside any contractual relationship between a trader and a consumer or following the conclusion of a contract and during its execution’. Debt collection activities should be regarded as after-sales commercial practices, because the debt collection is directly connected with the sale or supply of products. There are no objective reasons to differentiate that assessment based on whether a trader outsources it through specialised agencies or not. This is also implied in No 25 of Annex I which considers the practice of ‘Conducting personal visits to the consumer’s home ignoring the consumer’s request to leave or not to return except in circumstances and to the extent justified, under national law, to enforce a contractual obligation ’ as unfair in all circumstances. The Court confirmed in the Gelvora case that the legal relationship between a debt collection agency and the debtor, who has defaulted under a consumer credit agreement and whose debt has been assigned to that agency, indeed falls within the material scope of the Directive (128). For example: — A national court held that informing a consumer who is not complying with his financial obligations that his name will be published as a default payer in local media is an aggressive commercial practice (129). — A consumer authority took action against a debt collector that used a logo, name and documents that were similar to those used by the official agencies. The trader gave consumers the misleading impression that it was enforcing official court orders to force consumers to pay their debts when in fact such powers are reserved for public authorities (130). — A consumer authority considered debt collection as an after-sale commercial practice falling within the scope of the UCPD and fined a debt collection agency for misleading consumer debtors about the extent and gravity of adverse consequences they would face, would they fail to settle their debt immediately. The debt collection agency also failed to properly inform consumers about the exact contractual basis for the debt and exercised on them undue psychological pressure (131).

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