Behind the frosty glass: the EU’s Unfair Contract Terms Directive as a tool for justice in the modern financial sector
An EU directive about what is an unfair contract term is proving really helpful when it comes to protecting consumers in finance.
In no man’s land: consumers in the copyright debate
Consumers love sharing content online. Over the last decade, the rise of Facebook, Vimeo or Twitter transformed the Internet into a place where consumers can express themselves and where they can easily share their creations with their friends and family....
Food labels: Time to show their true colours
We live in an increasingly busy world with many demands on our time. One place where we generally don’t want to linger any more than is necessary is the supermarket. At the same time, when consumers go shopping they are...
A law allowing consumer compensation that Portugal can be proud of
Imagine this: your telecom company charged you more than it ought to, or you bought a car and the company misled you and you suffered damages. Or your personal data was sold, without your knowledge or consent, to a third...
Improving safety checks for some, but not all, consumer products flies in the face of reason
When we purchase new toys, clothes or electronics, we expect these to be safe. This is where ‘market surveillance’ comes into play: our authorities making sure products conform to our laws through controls and inspections. And as we are in...
Successes and challenges of the French law allowing group actions
The French collective redress procedure, where consumers can go to court as a group, will soon enter its 5th year of operation. Time to have a look at what has been achieved (or not). It’s certainly food for thought in...
Ryanair strike: why passengers urgently need collective redress
It can be frustrating to be a passenger rights specialist nowadays. Even if at BEUC we don’t deal with consumer complaints, a task that our members fulfil, I still get a lot of questions from family/friends/colleagues asking for advice when...
Altroconsumo’s experience of collective redress
If the market is the carrot, then group actions are the stick. The creation of an EU-wide collective redress procedure is currently being hotly debated in Brussels. In Italy meanwhile, the Italian consumer group Altroconsumo has used this stick 14 times...
E-health: your every personal detail online
New technologies have flooded our lives: many day-to-day products and activities now begin with the prefixes i-, e-, cyber-, info-, techno-, m-, net-, tele-, and the list goes on. It’s easy to get lost in this carrousel of innovation! Digitalisation...
US-style litigation culture? Only if you like alternative facts!
The howls of protest from business groups could be heard across Europe. On 11 April, the Commission proposed to make collective compensation claims possible when large numbers of consumers have been harmed by the same trader. Cue uproar and...