Press releases

“Consumers must obtain a fair share of the considerable benefits of the digitisation of the economy”, said BEUC Director General Monique Goyens at the opening of BEUC’s 2 October conference on “Protecting Consumers’ Freedoms in the Digital Era”. “We therefore call on the incoming European Commission to take decisive action, building on the progress made in the last five years, to boost competition law enforcement and, where appropriate, propose ex ante regulation”.

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.