Press releases

Consumer products sold in Europe will become more environmentally friendly, in a bid to better use depleting natural resources. That is the path the European Commission is taking, as announced in its freshly published Circular Economy action plan. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) applauds the EU Commission’s bold step, which will help deliver greener products to consumers.

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.