On 21 September 2012, the Council of Ministers approved a draft bill regarding the safety of products and services (the Draft Bill). The Draft Bill should become the ninth volume in a new and modernised commercial code which is set to encompass a total of 17 volumes.
The existing Belgian Commercial Code is based on the Napoleonic Commercial Code of 1807. Many provisions have become outdated and were replaced by an amalgamation of legislation regulating specific aspects of commerce. In 2006, a "round table" of legal scholars, practitioners, judges, public officials and economists (the Round Table) started to review the existing commercial rules and to propose changes to compile, streamline and modernise the existing commercial legislation.
The Round Table published its final report in 2008. This report contains a first draft for a new commercial code (the Final Report). The Final Report compiled the most common and important commercial rules and codified them into one book. Outdated legislation was removed and, where possible, various provisions were simplified. The Final Report put an end to various existing ambiguities and grey areas in the economic legislation, such as the notion of an "undertaking".
Based on the Final Report, the Council of Ministers approved the first draft bills on 20 July 2012, which cover the definitions to be applied in the new commercial code (volume 1), the general principles of the code (volume 2), and the quality of products and services (volume 8).
On 21 September 2012, the Council of Ministers approved volume 9, regarding the safety of goods and services. No legal texts have yet been made public, though the press release issued by the Council of Ministers indicates that volume 9 will change the following elements in the Law of 9 February 1994 regarding the safety of products and services (Wet van 9 februari 1994 betreffende de veiligheid van producten en diensten/Loi relative à la sécurité des produits et des services):
- The situations in which a product may be withdrawn from the market should be circumscribed more precisely and should be better defined;
- The minister will have the ability to delegate his/her power to withdraw a product from the market; and
- The consultation of the Commission on Consumer Safety has been modified.
All draft volumes adopted by the Council of Ministers now have to be reviewed by the Council of State which will hand down its opinion on their validity. Afterwards, the draft volumes will be presented to the Chamber of Representatives for review and adoption.
