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COMMISSION NOTICE – Guidance on the interpretation and application of Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market · European Union

Consumers can encounter early obsolescence practices whereby goods last less than their normal ‘lifespan’ should be according to consumers’ reasonable expectations. In particular, the premature failure of the goods can be due to planned obsolescence, or built-in obsolescence in industrial design, which is a commercial policy involving deliberately planning or designing a product with a limited useful life so that it will become obsolete or non-functional after a certain period of time. As explained under 2.3.1 above, the UCPD also covers commercial practices which occur after the transaction has been made. Regarding smart and connected goods, such commercial practices after the purchase can consist of reducing the functionality or slowing down the operation of the goods through software updates without a valid reason.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.