The Single Market with its potential for creating growth,
widening choice for consumers and opening opportunities
for businesses, is “a tool to improve European
businesses’ and citizens’ daily life and welfare”.4 Aimed
in particular at removing barriers which create
obstacles to the freedom of establishment and to the
freedom to provide and receive services within the EU,
so that both businesses and consumers can take full
advantages of the opportunities the Internal Market
offers, the adoption and subsequent implementation
of the Services Directive has been an important step
in improving the functioning of the Single Market
for services. Consumers in particular expect that the
removal of the legal and administrative barriers that
can hinder businesses from offering their services crossborder
shall guarantee them wider choice, better value
and easier access to services across the EU. However,
efforts to remove unjustified regulatory restrictions to
the provision of services may not translate into benefits
for service recipients if certain practices by service
providers serve to create artificial borders within the
Internal Market. Too often, consumers face restrictions
when they try to avail of services cross-border and
situations occur whereby consumers are confronted
with a refusal to supply or unequal conditions because
they come from or live in another EU country. While
traders are free to determine the territorial scope of
their offers, consumer complaints reported to ECC-Net
show that certain business practices may be to the
detriment of consumers and contrary to the principle
of non-discrimination based on the nationality or place
of residence of service recipients, as established by
Article 20.2 of the Services Directive.
By examining typical situations in which consumers
are confronted with different treatment or refusal to
provide a service, the report seeks to analyse business
practices observed and gather guidelines as to what
may be deemed to be an objective justification for the
application of different treatment. The main objectives
of the report are threefold:

• Analyse work done by ECC-Net under Article 21and the main problem areas under Article 20.2 of the Services Directive;
• Alert enforcement authorities about problems relating to the Services Directive, especially possible breaches of Article 20.2;
• Raise awareness of the protections offered to consumers under the Services Directive.