Secret EC study adds fuel to industry?s ire

PC players angered by European Commission?s decision to shroud research on Consumer Guarantees Directive in mystery

PC manufacturers have slammed a decision by the European Commission to conduct its study on the effects of the proposed Consumer Guarantees Directive in secret.

The draft directive, which critics claim places an unfair burden on dealers to prove that PCs actually work, is being assessed by unnamed consultants to see what the effect will be on European small businesses. But UK manufacturers have reacted furiously to the decision to carry out the study in secret, as they will not be able to make submissions or argue their side of the case.

?This is a carve-up,? claimed Keith Warburton, executive director of the Personal Computer Association (PCA), which has been lobbying against the pro- posed directive.

The PCA claims that the cost of the directive ? which allows the customer to claim a full refund on faulty goods within a year of purchase ? would add two per cent to the purchase cost of a retail PC.

?The only reason for the secrecy is for the EC to have a better chance of pushing through a damaging and unwanted piece of bureaucratic nonsense,? said Warburton.

This view was supported by a direct vendor.?The effect of the directive could be catastrophic,? he said. ?If every consumer exercised their right, then manufacturers would go out of business.? He added that customers would regard the directive as a way to rent a PC for a year and then return it for a newer one.

The draft directive was referred back to the EC after a critical House of Lords report in March. The EC said the consultants that are conducting the survey into its effects would not take submissions from interested parties, but would just use existing statistical data.