German
Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/204, p. 25638.
Right
honorable Herr President. Ladies and gentlemen.
Consumer
protection – it shall be dealt with here – can be developed and advanced not
only by the ever further differentiation of competition law. This can be done
another way which is based to a greater extent on free will, on personal and collective
responsibility, and which in some other countries of the world has passed the
test with flying colors. This is co-regulation. It occupies itself not so much
with clear violations of the current law, but is concerned primarily with legal
gray zones, with questions about ethical compliance [Deontologie] which are moreover to be comprehended with difficulty,
if at all. It is a procedure which has proven itself, especially in Great
Britain for several years; yet also in other case law countries like Australia
and, to my knowledge, in Canada.
In
our regard, control of the adherence to current consumer law is based not on an
authority which surveys it, but on consumer unions or individual persons
obtaining legal support.
Commercial
associations – general trades associations, chambers of commerce, trades boards
– have throughout in the past reacted to this uncertainty, during which they
have developed the so-called Wohlverhaltenskodizes,
codes of conduct, often with the best and most honest intent. Yet it must also
be stated: These codes of conduct in most cases have remained ineffective and in
fact for two reasons: For one, there are those who have concluded they do not
have the possibility of systematically surveying the adherence to these codes, and
for another, they have no sanctions possibilities. Co-regulation seeks to
counter this.
Just
what is this? The matter is quite simple. It rests for its part on codes of
conduct but not on such as those formed by the trade associations alone and in
their interests, but on codes of conduct which the trade associations together
with recognized consumer unions, like those defined for example in the KaMuG [capital
markets model case law], and those to be defined by the respective appropriate
state authority. Decisive is that these codes of conduct, as currently in Great
Britain and Australia, rely on sanctions. These sanctions will not be imposed
by those who have decided on the codes but by appropriate authorities. That,
for example in the area of telecommunications, would be the Network Agency, in
the area of financial services, the BaFin, etc.
The European
Economic and Social Committee has repeatedly committed itself to the
introduction of co-regulation in the EU.
Katharina Dröge (Greens): When do you actually speak on competition law?
This
is completely uncontested. Yet the European commission has not pursued it,
reasoning that the European Treaties conveyed no sufficient legal basis. We should
therefore not wait on the European Union coming up with this at some time or
other; we should much more make an advance and regulate on the national level
what co-regulation, in the countries into which it has already been introduced,
has so successfully accomplished. I am enlisted for this and therefore request
that you vote for our proposal [Drucksache
19/25808].
I
thank you.
[trans: tem]
