Contratti di vendita di beni conformi 2019/0771 EN

(1)	‘ sales_contract’ means any contract under which the seller transfers or undertakes to transfer ownership of goods to a consumer, and the consumer pays or undertakes to pay the price thereof;

(2)	‘ consumer’ means any natural person who, in relation to contracts covered by this Directive, is acting for purposes which are outside that person's trade, business, craft or profession;

(3)

‘ seller’ means any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, that is acting, including through any other person acting in that natural or legal person's name or on that person's behalf, for purposes relating to that person's trade, business, craft or profession, in relation to contracts covered by this Directive;

(4)	‘ producer’ means a manufacturer of goods, an importer of goods into the Union or any person purporting to be a producer by placing its name, trade mark or other distinctive sign on the goods;

(5)

‘ goods’ means:

(a)	any tangible movable items; water, gas and electricity are to be considered as goods within the meaning of this Directive where they are put up for sale in a limited volume or a set quantity;

(b)	any tangible movable items that incorporate or are inter-connected with digital_content or a digital_service in such a way that the absence of that digital_content or digital_service would prevent the goods from performing their functions (‘ goods with digital elements’);

(6)	‘ digital_content’ means data which are produced and supplied in digital form;

(7)

‘ digital_service’ means:

(a)	a service that allows the consumer to create, process, store or access data in digital form; or

(b)	a service that allows the sharing of or any other interaction with data in digital form uploaded or created by the consumer or other users of that service;

(8)	‘ compatibility’ means the ability of the goods to function with hardware or software with which goods of the same type are normally used, without the need to convert the goods, hardware or software;

(9)	‘ functionality’ means the ability of the goods to perform their functions having regard to their purpose;

(10)	‘ interoperability’ means the ability of the goods to function with hardware or software different from those with which goods of the same type are normally used;

(11)

‘ durable_medium’ means any instrument which enables the consumer or the seller to store information addressed personally to that person in a way that is accessible for future reference, for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information, and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

(12)

‘ commercial_guarantee’ means any undertaking by the seller or a producer (the guarantor) to the consumer, in addition to the seller's legal obligation relating to the guarantee of conformity, to reimburse the price paid or to replace, repair or service goods in any way if they do not meet the specifications or any other requirements not related to conformity set out in the guarantee statement or in the relevant advertising available at the time of, or before the conclusion of the contract;

(13)	‘ durability’ means the ability of the goods to maintain their required functions and performance through normal use;

(14)	‘ free_of_charge’ means free of the necessary costs incurred in order to bring the goods into conformity, particularly the cost of postage, carriage, labour or materials;

(15)

‘ public_auction’ means a method of sale where goods or services are offered by the seller to consumers, who attend or are given the possibility to attend the auction in person, through a transparent, competitive bidding procedure run by an auctioneer and where the successful bidder is bound to purchase the goods or services.

Article 3

Scope

1. This Directive shall apply to sales_contracts between a consumer and a seller.

2. Contracts between a consumer and a seller for the supply of goods to be manufactured or produced shall also be deemed sales_contracts for the purpose of this Directive.

3. This Directive shall not apply to contracts for the supply of digital_content or digital_services. It shall, however, apply to digital_content or digital_services which are incorporated in or inter-connected with goods in the meaning of point (5)(b) of Article 2, and are provided with the goods under the sales_contract, irrespective of whether such digital_content or digital_service is supplied by the seller or by a third party. In the event of doubt as to whether the supply of incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or an incorporated or inter-connected digital_service forms part of the sales_contract, the digital_content or digital_service shall be presumed to be covered by the sales_contract.

4. This Directive shall not apply to:

(a)	any tangible medium which serves exclusively as a carrier for digital_content; or

(b)	any goods sold by way of execution or otherwise by authority of law.

5. Member States may exclude from the scope of this Directive contracts for the sale of:

(a)	second-hand goods sold at public_auction; and

(b)	living animals.

In the case referred to in point (a), clear and comprehensive information that the rights deriving from this Directive do not apply shall be made easily available to consumers.

6. This Directive shall not affect the freedom of Member States to regulate aspects of general contract law, such as rules on the formation, validity, nullity or effects of contracts, including the consequences of the termination of a contract, in so far as they are not regulated in this Directive, or the right to damages.

7. This Directive shall not affect the freedom of Member States to allow consumers to choose a specific remedy, if the lack of conformity of the goods becomes apparent within a period after delivery, not exceeding 30 days. In addition, this Directive shall not affect national rules not specific to consumer contracts providing for specific remedies for certain types of defects that were not apparent at the time of conclusion of the sales_contract.

Article 10

Liability of the seller

1. The seller shall be liable to the consumer for any lack of conformity which exists at the time when the goods were delivered and which becomes apparent within two years of that time. Without prejudice to Article 7(3), this paragraph shall also apply to goods with digital elements.

2. In the case of goods with digital elements, where the sales_contract provides for a continuous supply of the digital_content or digital_service over a period of time, the seller shall also be liable for any lack of conformity of the digital_content or digital_service that occurs or becomes apparent within two years of the time when the goods with digital elements were delivered. Where the contract provides for a continuous supply for more than two years, the seller shall be liable for any lack of conformity of the digital_content or digital_service that occurs or becomes apparent within the period of time during which the digital_content or digital_service is to be supplied under the sales_contract.

3. Member States may maintain or introduce longer time limits than those referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2.

4. If, under national law, the remedies provided for in Article 13 are also subject to a limitation period, Member States shall ensure that such limitation period allows the consumer to exercise the remedies laid down in Article 13 for any lack of conformity for which the seller is liable pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, and which becomes apparent within the period of time referred to in those paragraphs.

5. Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, Member States may maintain or introduce only a limitation period for the remedies provided for in Article 13. Member States shall ensure that such limitation period allows the consumer to exercise the remedies laid down in Article 13 for any lack of conformity for which the seller is liable pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, and which becomes apparent during the period of time referred to in those paragraphs.

6. Member States may provide that, in the case of second-hand goods, the seller and the consumer can agree to contractual terms or agreements with a shorter liability or limitation period than those referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 5, provided that such shorter periods shall not be less than one year.

Article 11

Burden of proof

1. Any lack of conformity which becomes apparent within one year of the time when the goods were delivered shall be presumed to have existed at the time when the goods were delivered, unless proved otherwise or unless this presumption is incompatible with the nature of the goods or with the nature of the lack of conformity. This paragraph shall also apply to goods with digital elements.

2. Instead of the one-year period laid down in paragraph 1, Member States may maintain or introduce a period of two years from the time when the goods were delivered.

3. In the case of goods with digital elements where the sales_contract provides for the continuous supply of the digital_content or digital_service over a period of time, the burden of proof with regard to whether the digital_content or digital_service was in conformity within the period of time referred to in Article 10(2) shall be on the seller for a lack of conformity which becomes apparent within the period of time referred to in that Article.

Article 24

Transposition

1. By 1 July 2021 Member States shall adopt and publish the measures necessary to comply with this Directive. They shall immediately inform the Commission thereof.

They shall apply those measures from 1 January 2022.

When Member States adopt those measures, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or be accompanied by such a reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States.

Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the measures of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive.

2. The provisions of this Directive shall not apply to contracts concluded before 1 January 2022.

Article 26

Entry into force

This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

However, Article 22 shall apply from 1 January 2022.

whereas

(12) This Directive should only apply to tangible movable items that constitute goods within the meaning laid down in this Directive.
Member States should therefore be free to regulate contracts for the sale of immovable property, such as residential buildings, and its main components intended to constitute a major part of such immovable property.

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(13) This Directive and Directive (EU) 2019/770 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) should complement each other.
While Directive (EU) 2019/770 lays down rules on certain requirements concerning contracts for the supply of digital_content or digital_services, this Directive lays down rules on certain requirements concerning contracts for the sale of goods.
Accordingly, in order to meet the expectations of consumers and ensure a clear-cut and simple legal framework for traders of digital_content or digital_services, Directive (EU) 2019/770 applies to the supply of digital_content or digital_services, including digital_content supplied on a tangible medium, such as DVDs, CDs, USB sticks and memory cards, as well as to the tangible medium itself, provided that the tangible medium serves exclusively as a carrier of the digital_content.
In contrast, this Directive should apply to contracts for the sale of goods, including goods with digital elements which require digital_content or a digital_service in order to perform their functions.

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(15) This Directive should apply to contracts for the sale of goods, including goods with digital elements where the absence of the incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or digital_service would prevent the goods from performing their functions and where that digital_content or service is provided with the goods under the sales_contract concerning those goods.
Whether the supply of the incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or digital_service forms part of the sales_contract with the seller should depend on the content of this contract.
This should include incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or digital_services the supply of which is explicitly required by the contract.
It should also include sales_contracts which can be understood as covering the supply of specific digital_content or a specific digital_service because they are normal for goods of the same type and the consumer could reasonably expect them given the nature of the goods and taking into account any public statement made by or on behalf of the seller or other persons in previous links of the chain of transactions, including the producer.
If, for example, a smart TV were advertised as including a particular video application, that video application would be considered to be part of the sales_contract.
This should apply regardless of whether the digital_content or digital_service is pre-installed in the good itself or has to be downloaded subsequently on another device and is only inter-connected to the good.
For example, a smart phone could come with a standardised pre-installed application provided under the sales_contract, such as an alarm application or a camera application.
Another possible example is that of a smart watch.
In such a case, the watch itself would be considered to be the good with digital elements, which can perform its functions only with an application that is provided under the sales_contract but has to be downloaded by the consumer onto a smart phone; the application would then be the inter-connected digital element.
This should also apply if the incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or digital_service is not supplied by the seller itself but is supplied, under the sales_contract, by a third party.
In order to avoid uncertainty for both sellers and consumers, in the event of doubt as to whether the supply of the digital_content or the digital_service forms part of the sales_contract, the rules of this Directive should apply.
Furthermore, ascertaining a bilateral contractual relationship, between the seller and the consumer, of which the supply of the incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or digital_service forms part should not be affected by the mere fact that the consumer has to consent to a licensing agreement with a third party in order to benefit from the digital_content or the digital_service.

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(16) In contrast, if the absence of the incorporated or inter-connected digital_content or digital_service does not prevent the goods from performing their functions, or if the consumer concludes a contract for the supply of digital_content or a digital_service which does not form part of the contract concerning the sale of goods with digital elements, that contract should be considered to be separate from the contract for the sale of the goods, even if the seller acts as an intermediary of that second contract with the third-party supplier, and could fall within the scope of Directive (EU) 2019/770 if the conditions of that Directive are met.
For instance, if the consumer downloads a game application from an app store onto a smart phone, the contract for the supply of the game application is separate from the contract for the sale of the smart phone itself.
This Directive should therefore only apply to the sales_contract concerning the smart phone, while the supply of the game application should fall under Directive (EU) 2019/770, if the conditions of that Directive are met.
Another example would be where it is expressly agreed that the consumer buys a smart phone without a specific operating system and the consumer subsequently concludes a contract for the supply of an operating system from a third party.
In such a case, the supply of the separately bought operating system would not form part of the sales_contract and therefore would not fall within the scope of this Directive but could fall within the scope of Directive (EU) 2019/770, if the conditions of that Directive are met.

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(18) This Directive should not affect national law to the extent that the matters concerned are not regulated by this Directive, in particular with regard to the legality of the goods, damages and general contract law aspects such as the formation, validity, nullity or effects of contracts.
The same should apply in relation to the consequences of the termination of the contract and to certain aspects regarding repair and replacement that are not regulated in this Directive.
When regulating the rights of parties to withhold the performance of their obligations or part thereof until the other party performs its obligations, Member States should remain free to regulate the conditions and modalities regarding the withholding of payment of the price by the consumer.
Member States should also remain free to regulate the consumer's entitlement to compensation for damage suffered as a consequence of an infringement by the seller of this Directive.
This Directive should also not affect national rules that do not specifically concern consumer contracts and provide for specific remedies for certain types of defects that were not apparent at the time of conclusion of the sales_contract, namely national provisions which may lay down specific rules for the seller's liability for hidden defects.
This Directive should also not affect national laws providing for non-contractual remedies for the consumer, in the event of lack of conformity of goods, against persons in previous links of the chain of transactions, for example manufacturers, or other persons that fulfil the obligations of such persons.

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(23) This Directive should apply to any contract whereby the seller transfers or undertakes to transfer the ownership of goods to the consumer.
Platform providers could be considered to be sellers under this Directive if they act for purposes relating to their own business and as the direct contractual partner of the consumer for the sale of goods.
Member States should remain free to extend the application of this Directive to platform providers that do not fulfil the requirements for being considered a seller under this Directive.

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(37) Enhancing legal certainty for both consumers and sellers requires a clear indication of the time when the conformity of the goods should be assessed.
The relevant time for assessing the conformity of the goods should be the time when the goods are delivered.
This should also apply to goods which incorporate or are inter-connected with digital_content or a digital_service supplied through a single act of supply.
However, where the digital_content or digital_service incorporated in or inter-connected with the goods is to be supplied continuously over a period of time, the relevant time for the purpose of establishing conformity of that digital_content or digital_service element should not be one specific moment in time but rather a period of time, starting from the time of delivery.
For reasons of legal certainty, that period of time should be equal to the period during which the seller is liable for a lack of conformity.

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(41) In order to ensure that there is legal certainty for sellers and overall consumer confidence in cross-border purchases, it is necessary to provide for a period during which the consumer is entitled to remedies for any lack of conformity that exists at the relevant time for establishing conformity.
Given that when implementing Directive 1999/44/EC, a large majority of Member States have provided for a period of two years, and in practice that period is considered reasonable by market participants, that period should be maintained.
The same period should apply in the case of goods with digital elements.
However, where the contract provides for continuous supply for more than two years, the consumer should be entitled to remedies for any lack of conformity of the digital_content or the digital_service that occurs or becomes apparent within the period during which the digital_content or digital_service is to be supplied under the contract.
In order to ensure that there is flexibility for Member States to increase the level of consumer protection in their national law, Member States should be free to provide for longer time limits for the liability of the seller than those laid down in this Directive.

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(45) For a period of one year, or for a period of two years if Member States choose to apply a two-year period, the consumer should only need to prove that the good is not in conformity, without also needing to prove that the lack of conformity actually existed at the relevant time for establishing conformity.
In order to rebut the consumer's claim, the seller would need to prove that the lack of conformity did not exist at that time.
In addition, in some cases the presumption that the lack of conformity existed at the relevant time for establishing conformity could be incompatible with the nature of the goods or the nature of the lack of conformity.
The former could be the case with goods that by nature deteriorate, such as perishable products, for example flowers, or goods which are only intended for a single use.
An example of the latter would be a lack of conformity, which can only be a result of an action by the consumer or of an evident external cause which occurred after the goods were delivered to the consumer.
In the case of goods with digital elements where the contract provides for continuous supply of the digital_content or digital_service, the consumer should not have to prove that the digital_content or digital_service was not in conformity during the respective period of time for establishing conformity.
In order to rebut the consumer's claim, the seller would need to prove that the digital_content or digital_service was in conformity during that period.

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(49) The seller should be allowed to refuse to bring the goods into conformity if both repair and replacement are impossible, or they would impose disproportionate costs on the seller.
The same should apply if either repair or replacement is impossible and the alternative remedy would impose disproportionate costs on the seller.
For instance, if goods are located in a place that is different from where they were originally delivered, the costs of postage and carriage could become disproportionate for the seller.

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(66) Directive 1999/44/EC should be repealed.
The date of repeal should be aligned with the transposition date of this Directive.
In order to ensure that the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary for Member States to comply with this Directive are applied in a uniform manner to contracts concluded from the transposition date onwards, this Directive should not apply to contracts concluded before its transposition date.

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keyboard_tab Contratti di vendita di beni conformi 2019/0771 EN

Contratti di vendita di beni conformi 2019/0771 EN