Press releases

German consumer group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) and Volkswagen (VW) have reached an out-of-court settlement to compensate drivers affected by the 2015 Dieselgate emissions scandal. This is the result of a model case (“Musterfeststellungsklage”) launched by vzbv against the car maker on behalf of more than 400,000 consumers.

Six consumer groups from the BEUC network tested 250 electrical goods, toys, cosmetics and other products bought from online marketplaces such as Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Wish. They selected the products based on possible risks and found that 66% of them fail EU safety laws with possible consequences such as electric shock, fire or suffocation.

In response to the European Commission’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiative and data strategy – both presented today – The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) calls for the EU to put in place safeguards to mitigate risks from AI and data sharing for the EU’s 450 million consumers and to protect their rights in this digital revolution.

The Irish data protection commission (DPC) announced today that it will start a formal investigation into Google’s practices to track the location of consumers. The investigation follows a series of complaints by several national consumer groups across the EU, all BEUC member organisations, in November 2018.