(6) Union rules applicable to the sales of goods are still fragmented, although rules on delivery conditions and, as regards distance or off-premises contracts, pre-contractual information requirements and the right of withdrawal have already been fully harmonised by Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the CouncilĀ (3).
Other key contractual elements, such as the conformity criteria, the remedies for a lack of conformity with the contract and the main modalities for their exercise, are currently subject to minimum harmonisation under Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the CouncilĀ (4).
Member States have been allowed to go beyond the Union standards and introduce or maintain rules that ensure that an even higher level of consumer protection is achieved.
In doing so, they have acted on different elements and to different extents.
Thus, national provisions transposing Directive 1999/44/EC significantly diverge today on essential elements, such as the absence or existence of a hierarchy of remedies.
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(61) The principle of the seller's liability for damages is an essential element of sales_contracts.
Consumers should, therefore, be entitled to claim compensation for any detriment caused by an infringement by the seller of this Directive, including for damage suffered as a consequence of a lack of conformity.
Such compensation should put the consumer as much as possible into the position in which the consumer would have been had the goods been in conformity.
As the existence of such a right to damages is already ensured in all Member States, this Directive should be without prejudice to national rules on the compensation of consumers for harm resulting from infringement of those rules.
Member States should also remain free to regulate consumers' entitlement to compensation for situations in which the repair or replacement caused significant inconvenience or was delayed.
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