Contratti digitali 2019/0770 EN

1. In the case of a lack of conformity, the consumer shall be entitled to have the digital_content or digital_service brought into conformity, to receive a proportionate reduction in the price, or to terminate the contract, under the conditions set out in this Article.

2. The consumer shall be entitled to have the digital_content or digital_service brought into conformity, unless this would be impossible or would impose costs on the trader that would be disproportionate, taking into account all the circumstances of the case including:

(a)	the value the digital_content or digital_service would have if there were no lack of conformity; and

(b)	the significance of the lack of conformity.

3. The trader shall bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity pursuant to paragraph 2 within a reasonable time from the time the trader has been informed by the consumer about the lack of conformity, free of charge and without any significant inconvenience to the consumer, taking account of the nature of the digital_content or digital_service and the purpose for which the consumer required the digital_content or digital_service.

4. The consumer shall be entitled to either a proportionate reduction of the price in accordance with paragraph 5 where the digital_content or digital_service is supplied in exchange for a payment of a price, or the termination of the contract in accordance with paragraph 6, in any of the following cases:

(a)	the remedy to bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity is impossible or disproportionate in accordance with paragraph 2;

(b)	the trader has not brought the digital_content or digital_service into conformity in accordance with paragraph 3;

(c)	a lack of conformity appears despite the trader's attempt to bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity;

(d)	the lack of conformity is of such a serious nature as to justify an immediate price reduction or termination of the contract; or

(e)	the trader has declared, or it is clear from the circumstances, that the trader will not bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity within a reasonable time, or without significant inconvenience for the consumer.

5. The reduction in price shall be proportionate to the decrease in the value of the digital_content or digital_service which was supplied to the consumer compared to the value that the digital_content or digital_service would have if it were in conformity.

Where the contract stipulates that the digital_content or digital_service shall be supplied over a period of time in exchange for the payment of a price, the reduction in price shall apply to the period of time during which the digital_content or digital_service was not in conformity.

6. Where the digital_content or digital_service is supplied in exchange for the payment of a price, the consumer shall be entitled to terminate the contract only if the lack of conformity is not minor. The burden of proof with regard to whether the lack of conformity is minor shall be on the trader.

Article 16

Obligations of the trader in the event of termination

1. In the event of termination of the contract, the trader shall reimburse the consumer for all sums paid under the contract.

However, in cases where the contract provides for the supply of the digital_content or digital_service in exchange for a payment of a price and over a period of time, and the digital_content or digital_service had been in conformity for a period of time prior to the termination of the contract, the trader shall reimburse the consumer only for the proportionate part of the price paid corresponding to the period of time during which the digital_content or digital_service was not in conformity, and any part of the price paid by the consumer in advance for any period of the contract that would have remained had the contract not been terminated.

2. In respect of personal_data of the consumer, the trader shall comply with the obligations applicable under Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

3. The trader shall refrain from using any content other than personal_data, which was provided or created by the consumer when using the digital_content or digital_service supplied by the trader, except where such content:

(a)	has no utility outside the context of the digital_content or digital_service supplied by the trader;

(b)	only relates to the consumer's activity when using the digital_content or digital_service supplied by the trader;

(c)	has been aggregated with other data by the trader and cannot be disaggregated or only with disproportionate efforts; or

(d)	has been generated jointly by the consumer and others, and other consumers are able to continue to make use of the content.

4. Except in the situations referred to in point (a), (b) or (c) of paragraph 3, the trader shall, at the request of the consumer, make available to the consumer any content other than personal_data, which was provided or created by the consumer when using the digital_content or digital_service supplied by the trader.

The consumer shall be entitled to retrieve that digital_content free of charge, without hindrance from the trader, within a reasonable time and in a commonly used and machine-readable format.

5. The trader may prevent any further use of the digital_content or digital_service by the consumer, in particular by making the digital_content or digital_service inaccessible to the consumer or disabling the user account of the consumer, without prejudice to paragraph 4.

Article 19

Modification of the digital_content or digital_service

1. Where the contract provides that the digital_content or digital_service is to be supplied or made accessible to the consumer over a period of time, the trader may modify the digital_content or digital_service beyond what is necessary to maintain the digital_content or digital_service in conformity in accordance with Articles 7 and 8, if the following conditions are met:

(a)	the contract allows, and provides a valid reason for, such a modification;

(b)	such a modification is made without additional cost to the consumer;

(c)	the consumer is informed in a clear and comprehensible manner of the modification; and

(d)

in the cases referred to in paragraph 2, the consumer is informed reasonably in advance on a durable_medium of the features and time of the modification and of the right to terminate the contract in accordance with paragraph 2, or of the possibility to maintain the digital_content or digital_service without such a modification in accordance with paragraph 4.

2. The consumer shall be entitled to terminate the contract if the modification negatively impacts the consumer's access to or use of the digital_content or digital_service, unless such negative impact is only minor. In that case, the consumer shall be entitled to terminate the contract free of charge within 30 days of the receipt of the information or of the time when the digital_content or digital_service has been modified by the trader, whichever is later.

3. Where the consumer terminates the contract in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article, Articles 15 to 18 shall apply accordingly.

4. Paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article shall not apply if the trader has enabled the consumer to maintain without additional cost the digital_content or digital_service without the modification, and the digital_content or digital_service remains in conformity.

Article 27

Addressees

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 20 May 2019.

For the European Parliament

The President

A. TAJANI

For the Council

The President

G. CIAMBA

(1) OJ C 264, 20.7.2016, p. 57.

(2) Position of the European Parliament of 26 March 2019 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 15 April 2019.

(3) Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 (see page 28 of this Official Journal).

(4) Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 304, 22.11.2011, p. 64).

(5) Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare (OJ L 88, 4.4.2011, p. 45).

(6) Council Directive 93/42/EEC of 14 June 1993 concerning medical devices (OJ L 169, 12.7.1993, p. 1).

(7) Council Directive 90/385/EEC of 20 June 1990 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to active implantable medical devices (OJ L 189, 20.7.1990, p. 17).

(8) Directive 98/79/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 1998 on in vitro diagnostic medical devices (OJ L 331, 7.12.1998, p. 1).

(9) Directive 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002 concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services and amending Council Directive 90/619/EEC and Directives 97/7/EC and 98/27/EC (OJ L 271, 9.10.2002, p. 16).

(10) Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (OJ L 321, 17.12.2018, p. 36).

(11) Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to- consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’) (OJ L 149, 11.6.2005, p. 22).

(12) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal_data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1).

(13) Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal_data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) (OJ L 201, 31.7.2002, p. 37).

(14) Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) (OJ L 177, 4.7.2008, p. 6).

(15) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (OJ L 351, 20.12.2012, p. 1).

(16) Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 (OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1).

(17) Directive 2009/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on injunctions for the protection of consumers' interests (OJ L 110, 1.5.2009, p. 30).

(18) OJ C 369, 17.12.2011, p. 14.

(19) Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal_data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1).

(20) OJ C 200, 23.6.2017, p. 10.

(21) Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information (OJ L 345, 31.12.2003, p. 90).

(22) Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 laying down measures concerning open internet access and retail charges for regulated intra-EU communications and amending Directive 2002/22/EC and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 (OJ L 310, 26.11.2015, p. 1).

(23) Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (OJ L 167, 22.6.2001, p. 10).

whereas

(64) Given the diversity of digital_content and digital_services, it is not appropriate to set fixed deadlines for the exercise of rights or the fulfilling of obligations related to digital_content or digital_services.
Such deadlines would not take account of such diversity and could be either too short or too long, depending on the case.
It is therefore more appropriate to require that digital_content and digital_services be brought into conformity within a reasonable time.
Such requirement should not prevent the parties from agreeing on a specific time for bringing the digital_content or digital_service into conformity.
The digital_content or digital_service should be brought into conformity free of any charge.
In particular, the consumer should not incur any costs associated with the development of an update for the digital_content or digital_service.

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(65) Where bringing digital_content or a digital_service into conformity is legally or factually impossible or where the trader refuses to bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity because to do so would impose disproportionate costs on the trader, or where the trader has failed to bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity within a reasonable time, free of charge and without causing significant inconvenience to the consumer, the consumer should be entitled to the remedies of price reduction or termination of the contract.
In certain situations, it is justified that the consumer should be entitled to have the price reduced or the contract terminated immediately, for instance where the trader previously failed to successfully bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity or where the consumer cannot be expected to maintain confidence in the ability of the trader to bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity due to the serious nature of the lack of conformity.
For example, the consumer should be entitled to directly request a price reduction or the termination of the contract where the consumer is supplied with anti-virus software which is itself infected with viruses and would constitute an instance of lack of conformity of such a serious nature.
The same should apply where it is clear that the trader will not bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity within a reasonable time or without significant inconvenience for the consumer.

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(71) The consumer should be entitled to retrieve the content within a reasonable time, without hindrance from the trader, in a commonly used machine-readable format and free of charge, with the exception of costs generated by the consumer's own digital_environment, for instance the costs of a network connection as those costs are not specifically linked to the retrieval of the content.
However, the obligation of the trader to make available such content should not apply where the content only has utility within the context of using the digital_content or digital_service, or relates only to the consumer's activity when using the digital_content or digital_service or has been aggregated with other data by the trader and cannot be disaggregated or only with disproportionate efforts.
In such cases, the content does not have significant practical use or interest for the consumer while taking into account also the interests of the trader.
Moreover, the obligation of the trader to make available to the consumer, upon termination of the contract, any content that is not personal_data and has been provided or created by the consumer should be without prejudice to the trader's right not to disclose certain content in accordance with applicable law.

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(77) Where a modification negatively impacts, in more than a minor manner, the access or use of the digital_content or digital_service by the consumer, the consumer should enjoy as a result of such a modification the right to terminate the contract free of any charge.
Alternatively, the trader can decide to enable the consumer to maintain access to the digital_content or digital_service at no additional cost, without the modification and in conformity, in which case the consumer should not be entitled to terminate the contract.
However, if the digital_content or digital_service that the trader enabled the consumer to maintain is no longer in conformity with the subjective and the objective requirements for conformity, the consumer should be able to rely on the remedies for a lack of conformity as provided for under this Directive.
Where the requirements for such a modification as laid down in this Directive are not satisfied and the modification results in a lack of conformity, the consumer's right to bring the digital_content or digital_service into conformity, have the price reduced or the contract terminated, as provided for under this Directive, should remain unaffected.
Similarly, where, subsequent to a modification, a lack of conformity of the digital_content or digital_service that has not been caused by the modification arises, the consumer should continue to be entitled to rely on remedies as provided for under this Directive for the lack of conformity in relation to this digital_content or digital_service.

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keyboard_tab Contratti digitali 2019/0770 EN

Contratti digitali 2019/0770 EN