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The main aim of the Directive is to harmonise the law of financial services applicable to distance contracts and thus further the Internal Market in such services and products.

The Directive is also designed to protect consumer rights and to create a level playing field for suppliers of financial services to market their services in other member states. The Directive is also designed to be consonant with the approach of the E-commerce directive. The directive was also promulgated to fill the gap left by the failure to extend the protections of the Distance Selling Directive to consumers of financial services.

Substantive Scope of the Directive

The Directive only protects individual consumers. If individuals are contracting for financial services in their business or professional capacity then they are excluded from the protections of the Directive.
The Directive only applies to distance contracts. Examples of the types of distance contracts contemplated by the Directive include;

Telephone
Internet
E-mail
Postal contracts (mail order)
Interactive Television
Mobile phone

The key test is that the contract is concluded entirely ‘without the simultaneous physical presence of the supplier and consumer.’

Inertia Selling
The Directive prohibits the use of inertia selling as a legitimate means of marketing. This is where the onus is placed upon the customer to inform the company that he/she does not want the product or service. A recent example concerns the case of Marks and Spencer and its store card. Marks and Spencer had intended to upgrade the store card to a credit card. M&S decided to use inertia selling, that is all customers who had a store card would automatica本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。