A variety of EU rules are involved in the matter, including the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the E-commerce Directive, the Consumer Rights Directive or the unfair contract terms Directive.
Particularly significant is the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), an EU directive that has UK implementations.
Particular focus was on the Consumer Rights Directive, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Unfair Contract Terms Directive and the Consumer Sales and Guarantees Directive.
But in 2005, the EU introduced the Unfair Consumer Practices Directive, which was incorporated in British law in 2008.
In May 2008, the unfair commercial practices directive came into force, directly impacting bloggers, brands and their agencies.
MEPs also recommend greater sharing of product information between countries and backs European Commission plans to revise the EU's unfair commercial practices directive.
The Council says it intends to file a joint complaint against all four companies with the national DPA and the Consumer Ombudsman for breaching the European Data Protection Directive and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive.
EU lawmakers added to the "blacklist" of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (Annex I, listing the practices prohibited in all circumstances), amongst others, misleading statements about reviews when no reasonable steps have been taken to ensure their accuracy.
MEPs recommend several measures at EU and national levels to tackle the "dual quality" problem, including swift cross-border cooperation and data-sharing, comparative tests, better enforcement and a clearer update of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, proposed by the Commission in April 2018.
There is also an appeals process, regarded by some as draconian, but which discourages breaches of the directives, unfair award of contracts and reduces the risk of corruption.
I believe many of the unfair commercial practices directives apply through Europe, e.g. http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/rights/index_en.htm to prohibit misleading or aggressive marketing.
