Press releases

Reviewed European rail passenger rights agreed today by the Member States and the European Parliament lack ambition and are a missed opportunity to promote rail travel. Despite hopes of rail being central to the green recovery and ahead of the 2021 European Year of Rail, EU decision-makers made small improvements in limited areas, but watered down passenger rights in others in today’s compromise.

A report from The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) released five years after the Dieselgate scandal finds that VW is continuing its stalling tactics, exploiting legal loopholes and taking advantage of the uneven access to justice of European consumers. In short, the report confirms that VW is doing everything to avoid compensation payments to EU consumers – while paying out $9.5 billion in compensation to defrauded US car owners just months after the scandal broke. It also highlights that Europe’s legal systems lack the necessary tools to tackle mass claims.

Following thousands of complaints from upset airline passengers, BEUC – and 11 of its member organisations – have reported some major airlines to national consumer protection authorities and the European Commission for breaching passenger rights and for using unfair commercial practices. BEUC and its members are also asking for a broad investigation of the sector regarding wide-spread unfair practices during the last few months.

In 2019, more than 2,000 notifications of non-food products were made to the EU’s rapid alert system (Safety Gate) as failing safety requirements. Each notification may represent thousands of faulty products. Toys, motor vehicles and electrical appliances were the product groups with most notifications. The figure could well be an undercount, as many dangerous products are possibly not identified.