Press releases

A trade deal between the EU and Japan will be signed in Tokyo tomorrow (17 July). Consumer groups welcome that rules on data flows – which could risk undoing EU efforts to protect people’s personal data – have been excluded from the deal. However, two issues – that of using an investor protection court and the formulation of consumer benefits – remain unclear at this stage.

Additional safeguards are needed to make sure EU rules on data protection and privacy are not undermined by trade agreements. This is what the European Parliament’s international trade committee asked for in a vote today.

Although more and more Europeans shop online, their trust in the market outside the EU remains low. New research shows this is because consumers lack information and face difficulties when something goes wrong with a purchase on the global online market.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) undertook a consumer performance check of the first two-and-a-half years of the Juncker Commission.1 We looked at the Commission’s legislative initiatives and its key policy actions and graded their performance on a scale from very good to very bad.