Press releases

The overhaul to EU car testing hinges on two crucial votes taking place tomorrow (4 April) in the European Parliament. The outcome will show whether EU policy makers are truly set on protecting consumers and tackling the fundamental problems associated with the Volkswagen and wider emissions scandal.

Today the European Commission unveiled plans to address the unnecessarily high costs consumers face when they are abroad and are offered to pay in either the local currency or their own, which is known as Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) [1]. The EU executive arm is also looking to reduce the high fees consumers are usually charged when they make cross-border payments between euro and non-euro currencies. BEUC strongly supports action in both areas and is calling for an outright ban of DCC.

Today the European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee voted to give more powers to national authorities responsible for protecting consumers, such as greater investigative powers and being able to order a trader to pay compensation to consumers when traders have broken the law. The committee also wants consumer organisations to be able to formally alert national public authorities when cases of foul play are identified. The European Parliament is broadly in line with the European Commission proposal which was issued in May 2016.

Over 2,000 dangerous non-food consumer products were reported to the EU’s rapid alert system (RAPEX) in 2016. Such a number denounces again the blatant need for a more effective market surveillance, and one way to do so is to finally beef up the General Product Safety Directive. Importantly, the 2.000 figure is only the tip of the iceberg as each notification may represent thousands of faulty products, and many products are possibly not found at all.