Press releases

The EU has just adopted the ‘Ecodesign’ package which will improve five types of products that most consumers own at home: lighting, fridges, TV screens, dishwashers and washing machines. Besides relying on less energy, the appliances will be easier to fix and, in some cases, safer. However, the measures should have gone further to make it easy for consumers to repair their goods.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and Kuluttajaliitto – Konsumentförbundet ry, its Finnish member group, will meet today with the Finnish Minister for Justice, Anna-Maja Henriksson, and the State Secretary for Transport and Communications, Mikko Koskinen, in Helsinki. The goal of the meeting was to stress how the Finnish Presidency of the EU could advance consumer rights by bringing to a close several crucial legislative consumer files.

Four years after the US Environmental Protection Agency reported that Volkswagen had used ‘defeat device’ software to meet air pollutant emissions standards, European consumers are still left empty-handed.

In the decade after EU rules on energy-efficient lighting kicked in, the average European household has saved up to €1,330 − the equivalent combined price of a mid-range washing machine, fridge and dishwasher. The figure comes from a new study commissioned by ANEC, the European consumer voice in standardisation, and BEUC, The European Consumer Organisation.