Last December, the Commission launched two long-awaited proposals in the area of contract law, aimed at harmonising contract law in the European Union. e-commerce. Both seek market enhancement online in the European Union, focusing on its legal aspects. Its characterisation as Contract law should be highlighted in the environment of the digital single market strategyapproved in May 2015. The Strategy is a project to create a free and secure digital single market in which citizens and businesses can buy and sell online throughout the EU regardless of where they live in the Union. Legally, it will affect contract law, but also consumer law, personal data protection and intellectual property law, among the areas of EU competence, as outside these areas it will also affect national VAT taxation.

The adopted proposals, which will be dealt with under the ordinary procedure, deal with certain aspects of contracts for the supply of digital content (COM 634 final) and certain aspects of contracts for the sale of goods on the Internet and at a distance (COM 635 final) respectively.

They constitute an initiative star which will be led by the D.G. Justice and will therefore be entrusted to the Ministers of Justice of the Union for monitoring and approval. This is due to the importance given to contractual regulation. autonomous which is rooted in a long process, which, apart from the background, since 2007 has run parallel to the cursum The European Civil Code has been the subject of the Consumer Directive and has taken three consecutive forms (as the creation of a European Civil Code has never been a serious approach): tool box for the European legislator, the Common Frame of Reference (CFR Draft) and the proposal for a European Sales Law Regulation (CESL) finally withdrawn despite Parliament's enthusiasm. In contrast to this ambitious approach, the current Commission is more realistic. On the one hand, the new proposals only concern B 2 C contracts and not additionally B 2 B, as was the case in CESL. This is because the area of consumer contracts is less technically complex and it does not make sense to separate it for the area of consumer contracts. online national spaces or not, which limits the problems of subsidiarity and the legal basis of the proposals. In the CESL negotiation, delegations accepted uniformity. The new Directives, once approved, will not allow for variable harmonisation - neither maximums nor minimums - but will have to be exact in their incorporation into the law of the States by transposition, which facilitates their fit with both Regulation (EC) No 593 / 2008 (Rome I) and with the legislative basis chosen (art. 114 TFEU), although in practice they will differ little from Regulations.

In addition, both proposals, in turn, are part of the project to revise European contract law. Indeed, the future instruments will be accompanied during the current year, 2016, according to the work plan foreseen by the Commission, by a REFIT of contract law. The action is defined as a comprehensive review of the various existing instruments relating to sales and consumer rights in general in the area of contract law. The aim of the initiatives is to bring clarity to the contract so that the consumer is fully aware of his rights before the contract is concluded, both with regard to the conditions or clauses and the guarantees given. REFIT will require a review of Directives 99/44 and 93/13; the evaluation of the Consumer Rights Directive; the possible modernisation of Directive 98/6; as well as the extension of action to B2B, C2C and even C2B contracts (e.g. sale of gold); as well as interaction with specific sectors such as telecommunications, energy or financial services. A roadmap is expected to be published shortly.

This approach has immediately attracted severe criticism as it implies a disintegration of contract law between distance selling, especially in the case of distance sales. onlineThe Commission has rejected the criticism on the grounds that the different phases are based solely on timing and priority reasons. The Commission has denied the criticism on the grounds that the different phases are based solely on reasons of timing and priority.

It should be noted that in European law there is no distinction between the civil and commercial nature of contracts. It is a non-existent issue. The difference lies in the subjects to whom the contractual offer is addressed, which determines the legal regime. The new directives will maintain the distinction by addressing themselves now exclusively to the traditional area of B 2 C contracting. online and the others aimed at consumers.

With excessive simplification, in an approximation of the proposals, it can be noted that in 635, distance selling is defined as any sales contract concluded at a distance without the simultaneous physical presence of the seller and the consumer, with the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication, including the Internet, up to and including the time of conclusion of the contract. As an immediate objective, it aims to unify consumer rights in cases of distance selling given the disparity of national legislation in this area, largely as a result of the transposition of Directive 1999/44 establishing a minimum level of consumer protection. It aims to increase legal certainty in two aspects of distance selling contracts: the conformity of the contents and the consumer's rights in the event of non-conformity and the procedures for exercising these rights. For its part, proposal 634 is unique in that it provides for two types of contracts for the supply of digital goods, including those supplied on a durable medium: supplies against payment or in exchange for personal or other data for commercial use or for purposes other than the fulfilment of legal obligations or conditions necessary for the performance or realisation of the contract.

This January will see the start of their joint negotiation, which is expected to last - hopefully - no more than a year.