The European Commission has proposed a new directive to enhance consumer rights in distance selling, which includes classic mail order as well as purchases made online.

I'm a perennial skeptic concerning legislative proposals such as this. The path from proposal to adoption is long, as is the path from adoption to implementation.

But two arguments made in support of the proposed directive by the Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Consumers caught my eye:
  • A claim that the single retail internal market (in orther words, the single market, viewed at the retail level) is not functioning. Despite a patchwork of legislation, the Commission apparently concludes that there's a problem and that more legislation can fix it. But maybe distance (still) matters, in which case more legislation won't change things (much).
  • By far the leading complaint or dispute made by European consumers in the distance selling context (mail order and online purchases) concerns delivery. Apparently this is a problem in both crossborder and domestic settings. I find it remarkable that consumers complain most or most loudly about goods delivered late or not at all, rather than about returns or hidden charges (other issues the proposed directive addresses), or problems stemming from language differences (for example, a consumer mistakenly thinks shipping is free, or that he has chosen a particular color or size). The proposed directive tries to address the issue by imposing new burdens on sellers. But to take a contrarian view, maybe the problem instead stems from underperforming postal or delivery services.