The dawn of the century ushered in a true digital revolution. Over the past twenty years, EU legislation has tried to regulate the digital environment, only to struggle to keep up with a continuously changing online landscape. Facing a “Digital Wild West” awash with dangers, BEUC has consistently battled to ensure a high level of consumer protection online.
This blog is part of our 60th anniversary series, tying the six decades of BEUC’s existence to current day concerns. This one focuses on the 2000s. For more, delve into our anniversary booklet.
Over the past twenty years, our lives have become increasingly spent online. From shopping to connecting with friends and family to looking for information and entertainment, millions of consumers use the internet and online platforms every single day. However, as the Digital revolution took off, it quickly became apparent that the hard-fought rights and protections that consumers had offline were far from guaranteed in the brave new online world.
The early battles: e-commerce and roaming
Back in 2000, with the establishing of a legal framework to regulate online services, the e-Commerce Directive, BEUC was at the forefront ensuring that the establishment of a comprehensive e-Commerce framework should deliver consumer benefits, with adequate rules such as basic requirements on mandatory consumer information. This legal framework was complementary to Directive 97/7/EC on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, the very first tool for e-commerce which brought about consumer information obligations and the right to withdrawal.
The 2000s also saw the start of the decade-long battle to abolish roaming charges. It all started with reports from one of our French members, UFC-Que Choisir, about the huge fees imposed on consumers when using their phones in another EU country. This led to BEUC and its members lodging an official complaint with the European Commission.
Spurred on by BEUC and consumer pressure, the European Commission announced swift action in 2007 to gradually reduce roaming rates, culminating in 2017 when roaming fees became history.
Where we are now
Over twenty-five years since the adoption of the distance selling directive and then the eCommerce Directive, the need to make the case for consumers has only grown With connected products everywhere, throughout the past decade, the border between off-line and on-line has become blurred. BEUC members have consistently shown just how much the current digital market reality has substantially changed compared to the 2000s
As e-commerce grew in volume, there has also been an explosion of illegal activities online, especially on online marketplaces where consumers are regularly exposed to dangerous products, fraud attempts and scams. In average two-thirds of products bought from online marketplaces fail safety tests or do not comply with legal standards.
Moreover, surveillance and the exploitation of the personal data of consumers wherever they go on the internet has become the default business model online and unfair commercial practices are commonly deployed to mislead and take advantage of consumers. Take “dark patterns” in online user interfaces for instance, those design tricks pushing consumers to make decisions that do not serve their own interests but rather serve companies’ commercial interest.
This grim portrait is completed by the constant challenge of ensuring the effective enforcement of existing consumer protection laws in the digital world.
Progress has been made recently though, with the adoption of legislation such as the, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Market Act (DMA). The DSA and the DMA introduce new obligations, particularly for gatekeepers and big online platforms. However, much still needs to be done to bring an end to the “Digital Wild West”.
Are we there yet? Not quite
The DSA did not bring the much-needed overhaul of the liability regime for online marketplaces, to make them responsible for the illegal activities taking place on their services. This remains a blind spot in online consumer protection. The DSA also did not go as far as banning surveillance based advertising. These two issues must therefore remind important elements in the “to-do” list for EU legislators.
Roaming fees may be behind us, but it still costs an arm and a leg to call a friend who lives in a different Member State. This will also require the EU to intervene decisively to finally achieve a real single market for telecommunications that works for consumers.
New rules are also established to address new risks, prompted by the continuous technological developments. Artificial Intelligence, the protection of privacy and personal data and the establishment of health data spaces are some of the key new challenges where consumer should clearly benefit from technological advances rather than just be exposed to new, more dangerous risks.
Consumers must be in full control of their data, which must be strongly protected – especially when that data is sensitive.
We welcome that the EU’s Declaration on digital rights and principles signed in November 2022 promotes a European way for the digital transformation, putting people at the centre, built on European values and EU fundamental rights, benefiting all individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. To meet these objectives, the EU still needs to go a long way.
Effective enforcement of the existing rules is needed both at national and European level. EU and national authorities need better, more adequate means to make sure businesses abide by the rules. The different national enforcement authorities must get out of their silos and cooperate more closely to effectively tackle business practices which very often break laws irrespective of national borders.
Consumer organisations also have an important role to play. A ‘virtuous cycle’ of synergies between public and private enforcement, with clear communication channels between consumer organisations and national authorities and effective mechanism for lodging and handing complaints. That is the recipe to address the enforcement challenges we face in the digital world. We must also ensure that consumers have access to effective means of redress in case of harm.
Just like we have been doing for the past 60 years, BEUC and its members will continue working hard to ensure EU consumer protection keeps up with the challenges that arise from the digital transformation of our markets and societies. Next up: the fight against digital asymmetry to ensure consumers can make fair choices when going online.