The web is full of websites inviting you to sign contracts for personal loans, credit cards or other forms of consumer credit. And often those who sign them realize too late that they have been duped and have to pay much more than they had planned.
The EU has also noticed this, and has launched a so-called "sweep" investigation. National authorities in the 27 Member States, plus Norway and Iceland, checked over 500 websites, flagging 393 (70%) for further investigation. The reasons always have to do with the lack of clarity of the information provided, which is very often incomplete.
Here are the detailed results of the survey: in 258 sites (46% of those controlled) the advertising does not contain all the information required by the consumer credit directive (for example the annual percentage rate of charge or the duration of the credit agreement ), while 244 sites (43%) did not give clear information on all the various elements of the total cost.
In the coming months and weeks, national authorities will contact operators and ask them to provide clarifications or to correct their sites. Depending on the applicable national legislation, not complying with the aforementioned indications may result in penalties from a fine up to the closure of the website.
