and jus-bit

The privacy of consumers.

Excellent and commendable initiative of the National Union of Consumers - UNC - announced yesterday that the activation of the facility 'privacy at risk " .

Very often, especially for activities that are done online, the user is not shown how the processing of data and the rights that the person concerned.

National Consumers Union, the initiative allows the door to the consumer (excluding institutions and companies) to request all information necessary for the protection of personal data and possibly get the appropriate answers.

The European Commission in a press release yesterday signaled the start of a public consultation on collective actions for damages (collective redress). It 'also have an explanatory document (English only). Read the rest of this entry »

According to a press release of the European Parliament will be updated and clarified the rights of consumers and for purchases in stores and online both in the light of the new amended rules yesterday (01.02.2011) by the Commission for the internal market of the EU Parliament.

This should boost the confidence of consumers, especially in cross-border shopping.

Parliament's vote in plenary is scheduled for March.

Here are the declarations of the Vice President of the European Commission V. Reding:

"The Balanced Approach Favoured by European Parliamentarians today will Strengthen Both consumer and the rights of Europe's Internal Market Functioning," said Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU's Justice Commissioner. "Today's vote in the IMCO committee Provides for one set of rights for EU consumers shopping at a distance or off-premises, Such as from a door-to-door salesman. Both consumers and businesses can now be satisfied at the progress made ​​on this important Being Proposal. I would like to thank the Parliament's rapporteur In Particular, Andreas Schwab, who has tirelessly and skilfully steered this major initiative forward. "

Source: Europe

The Court of Justice of the European Union 7.12.2010 , in Joined Cases C-585/08 and made ​​C-144/09 concerns the definition of two actions (just joined) and two lots between two consumers and businesses E-commerce, the issue concerns the jurisdiction in cross-border relations and it is interesting in relation to two aspects are dealt with it legal:

1. The first aspect refers to the classification of a journey as an "all inclusive".

2. The second aspect refers to the classification of business conducted through a website as a "direct" to the Member State of the consumer.

The two cases can be summarized as follows:

a) in the first case a consumer buys a boat trip on the Internet merchant, the consumer does not participate in the trip and the company - the Internet - has sold a part of the journey reimburse the cost of the trip (in this case € 3,500, 00 compared to € 5,000.000);

b) in the second case, a consumer has refused to pay the bill for a stay booked through the Internet.

What unites the two disputes, which led to the meeting and its proceedings, as a consumer is coated on both sides of the dispute and the subject of proceedings for the purchase of travel over the Internet.

The Court focuses on the qualification of the first voyage as "all inclusive" recalls his own earlier ruling stating "the Court has already had occasion to declare, as a service to qualify as" all inclusive ", pursuant to art. 2, paragraph 1 of Directive 90/314, is sufficient, on the one hand, the combination of tourist services sold at an inclusive price includes two of the three types of services referred to in that provision, ie transport, housing and other tourist services not ancillary to transport or accommodation which themselves form a significant part of the "all inclusive" and, second, that the service exceeds 24 hours or includes an overnight stay (see April 30, 2002 Case C - 400/00, Club - Tour, ECR. I - 4051, paragraph 13). "

In light of this interpretation of the dispute in the proceedings in question is described as a journey "all inclusive" because "in addition to transport, this meant traveling merchant ship for a flat fee, accommodation and also that the trip was longer than to 24 hours. "

The second profile, as has been said, is "if the trader has directed his activities at the Member State in whose territory the consumer is domiciled, pursuant to art. 15, No. 1, Lett. c) of Regulation No 44/2001, in order to identify the court of competent jurisdiction to hear the case. " The Court uses the following criteria to qualify hermeneutic activity by a trader: "In that regard, it must carry on business in the Member State in whose territory the consumer is domiciled or to direct its activities, by any means , to that Member State or to several States including that Member State, and the contract must fall within the scope of such activities. " Therefore, the business must: a) be carried on in the consumer's Member State, or b) be direct - by any means - to the state of the consumer.

It would seem, given that the activities of the trader was exercised through the website, which can not be no doubt about the possibility of classifying the same activity as "direct" in the Member State of the consumer. However, the Court stated: "It does not follow, however, that the words' activities directed toward" must be interpreted as implying mere accessibility of a website in Member States other than where it is established, the trader concerned. " Therefore, the mere existence of an Internet site is not considered a unique occasion to affirm the classification of an activity as "direct to".

The criterion of "direct to" require "the dealer must have expressed their desire to establish business relationship with consumers of one or more other Member States, including the territory of which the consumer is domiciled." The Court continues, therefore, saying that "with regard to a contract concluded between a trader and a given consumer, should therefore be ascertained whether, prior to conclusion of the contract with the consumer the same, showed that there were indications that the trader intended to deal with consumers residing in other Member States, including one on the territory of which the consumer is domiciled, in the sense that it was willing to conclude a contract with these consumers. "

Elements, whose checking that the national court, in the opinion of the Court (it is stated that the list is illustrative and not exhaustive) activity can be considered as "direct to" are:

• the international nature of the activity;
• the route guidance from other Member States to go to the place where the trader is established;
• the use of a language or a coin or currency other than the language customarily used in the Member State where the trader is established with the ability to book and confirm the reservation in that different language;
• indication of the telephone numbers along with a country code;
• the deployment of financial resources for a positioning service on the Internet in order to make it easier for consumers domiciled in other Member States access to the merchant's site or to that of the intermediary;
• the use of a top-level domain name other than the Member State where the trader is established and
• the mention of an international clientele consisting of customers domiciled in different Member States.

This assumes that interest, in the opinion of the writer, about the elements that relate to the use of financial resources for placement in search engines and the use of a top-level domain name. In my humble opinion, these two elements do not constitute evidence for the qualification of the activity as "direct to". In fact, the use of financial resources for placement on search engines first requires an investigation of financial company engaged in the business that goes far beyond mere symptoms detected generically as external circumstance. Secondly, I have doubts about the possibility (technical) to direct placement in a state rather than in another. The choice of a top-level domain name can not constitute evidence capable of qualification as a "direct to" place that conflicts with the principle of free enterprise. Indeed, the entrepreneur's interest to acquire greater visibility in an absolute sense by describing its activities on the Internet with a top-level domain name which is usually identified with. Com rather than a. Xx refers to the national context in which is located. Certainly, the TLD (Top Level Domain) does not, in the opinion of the writer, nothing useful for the investigation to be made.

However, in a globalized economy and eastern boundaries senna, would indeed wonder what might be the discrete elements, which also place additional clues such as language and telephone contacts are characteristic of any business, with regard to numbers telephone contacts are often used for VOIP which is difficult to allocate territorially company. Similarly, the language (eg English) in some states is that spoken like the common official language. The euro, then removed any doubt as to the currency.

It is evident that the assessment for the national court and must be made on a case by case basis, but probably should be used with elements other than those indicated in the Court's ruling in question.

AGCOM with the decision made ​​at the meeting of 3.11.2010 has sanctioned the Euro Ltd. Content for unfair business practices in relation to the site www.easy-download.info .

The total penalty is € 960,000.

The fact: the consumer unaware reached the site www.easy-download.info convinced to download software for free but was redirected to a web page to fill out an online form. The consumer, in fact, by filling out this form online said they want to sign an annual contract at a cost of 96.00 euros. The information about this online contract were absolutely scarce and not very recognizable by the average user, so much so that the subjects were numersosissimi "fallen into the trap." The Euro Content Company Ltd began to demand payment of the annual sum of € 96.00 for those who had proceeded with the online application form.

No comment deserves the behavior set up by the company Euro Ltd. Content also with regard to privacy and the processing of personal data, considered - among others - that many people have received requests for payment without having completed the module, or had never mentioned visited the page www.easy-download.info

An important role in the affair in question have taken some consumer groups, including the National Consumers Union , which deserves compliments for activities and for the proper assistance to the parties concerned.

After the publication of the previous post on this subject was issued a press release which is provided below the abstract:

According to a new European Commission report published today on cross-border e-commerce consumer products there has been a widespread problem on the refusal of orders for EU consumers trying to purchase products online in another Member State. On behalf of the Commission has launched an extensive independent study based on purchases made ​​by "a mystery" in which buyers from across the EU have tried to purchase a range of 100 popular products - such as cameras, CDs, books, clothing - a cross-border traders. Were sent over 11000 orders trial. The research found that 60% of cross border transactions could not be completed by consumers because the merchant does not ship the product in their country or did not offer an adequate means of cross-border payment. Latvia, Belgium, Romania and Bulgaria are the countries where consumers have more difficulty in cross-border shopping (for a complete list with the placement of the respective countries to the EU-27, see MEMO/09/475 ). But in all countries except two, the chances of success when you do a cross-border purchase are lower than 50%. It is thus clear that the citizens lose good opportunities. In more than half of the Member States 50% or more of the products could be obtained at a lower cost by 10% (including shipping) by using a website in another country. In addition, 50% of the product description was not available on national sites and was only offered by the trader in another Member State. The Communication sets out a series of measures to be taken to reduce the complex regulatory environment that discourages firms from serving consumers in another Member State. In addition, to boost confidence in online commerce, we will investigate in a forum with stakeholders issues related to the collection of trade data and their use to develop a profile of customers and target their offerings.

On the website of DG-SANCO is available in Italian the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the monitoring of consumer outcomes in the single market in the second edition of the Scoreboard of the markets for consumer goods.

It is considered appropriate to report the synthesis that is mentioned in the introduction of cross-border communication on electronic commerce.

The main objective of the Scoreboard is to identify the market segments that are not working so well for consumers.

...

• While e-commerce is spreading, the cross-border e is not developing at a similar rate, because of cross-border barriers to trade online. The report on electronic commerce published alongside this Scoreboard sets out in detail the current situation of electronic commerce in the EU. The report on retail market in 2009 will include a section dedicated to-market online retail, which details the various initiatives relating to the geographical segmentation of the online market, barriers to meet-trated by consumers buying online across borders, as well as ongoing efforts to address this problem.

With specific reference to retail reads:

The border retail trade is in a stalemate. The proportion of consumers shopping across borders has remained at 2006 levels, while the share of cross-border sales has declined. However, while 25% of consumers have shopped cross-border in the last 12 months, 33% are considering doing so next year. If the EU harmonized standards were established for the consumer, 49% of retailers would be interested in cross-border sales. This would produce a significant improvement over the 20% that currently sell cross-border. The purchase online is spreading, but the cross-border e-commerce is not developing as quickly as the electronic national level.

The percentage of consumers who feel adequately protected by existing measures varies considerably between Member States. in 2008, half of Europeans believe that the measures currently in place provide adequate protection for consumers. In addition, consumers seem to experience difficulties when attempting to solve a problem or complaint. About half of European consumers who lodged complaints was not satisfied with the treatment reserved to them. Only four in ten consumers find it easy to resolve disputes with sellers and suppliers through alternative mechanisms of dispute resolution and only three in ten find it easy to resolve disputes through courts. these figures are slightly lower than those of 2006.

Source: Europe

As anticipated with this post , yesterday, the European Commissioner M. Kuneva stated its policy relating to ' e-commerce . This is not new, but a further step of the program on e-commerce. In summary, Kuneva stated that we need to create a simple and unique legislation on consumer rights, which will replace the existing framework, will also need to promote a more efficient consumer protection legislation and provide citizens with adequate information about the withdrawal. Finally, the legislation will be simplified for sellers.

Beyond this synthesis proposed by Commissioner Kuneva, the Commission issued yesterday a communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, European cross-border e-commerce business to consumer (B2C). This document, always with a view to progression programmed by Commissioner Kuneva, is of primary importance because it is completed with a thick (106 pages) report on e-commerce in Europe which was published on October 20.

In essence, the first mentioned Communication aims to achieve a better system for cross-border e-commerce. The Commission will continue to monitor the system of cross-border e-commerce.

In my opinion it is very necessary and appropriate that consumer associations are proactive way to help dramatically improve the system of cross-border e-commerce. On the one hand, consumer groups will create awareness campaigns directed at consumers and other action at the institutional level to make suggestions or contributions aimed at a more harmonized system of e-commerce in Europe.

Today there is an intervention Commissartia M. Kuneva on the measures that the Commission deemed to be adopted for better protection of children and adolescents from exposure to noise from personal music players.

The problem is already known for some time, since October 2008, the European Scientific Committee on Emerging and identified (SCENIHR - EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks) found that "from 5% to 10% of users can be at risk of permanent hearing loss and that this could be for a maximum of 10 million people in the European Union. "

Subsequently, 27 January 2009, Commissioner Kuneva, speaking at the "Personal Music Players Stakeholders' Conference" has referred four questions that I report :

or revision of existing safety standards to better protect our consumers ? First, there is a need for regulation or revision of existing Further safety standards to better protect our consumers?

Second, what are the technical solutions That Could apply industry to avoid hearing damage?

Third, what are the users Precautions That Can, and Should, take?

My last question is: What do we need to do next to Ensure the safety of personal music players? What is required from us and what should we do to Achieve it?

Ms Kuneva will highlight how consumers, particularly young people, should be aware of the risks and the products must be designed so that they are safe.

Source: Europe