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Consumer's Telegramm European Edition
If you wish to be informed monthly about European consumer news, just subscribe our free newsletter.JANUARY 2004
Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori(European Consumer Centre, Italy)
TIME SHARING
No deposit at resale
Again and again do owners of time sharing weeks relate to have paid on account 1500 euro to a resale company and shortly after had no more news about them. The grounds for the advanced money can be various: charges for the creation of the ownership certificate, without which it should not be possible to sell, the purchase of a supplementary week thus the possibilities of sale double, charges for advertising and advertisements, etc.Our tip: Never mind what charges you get reckoned, insist that they are advanced by the intermediary and eventually deducted from the selling price. Legally seen are the charges part of the company risk of the intermediary and should be included in his/her commission. The latter becomes due only after the sale.
E-COMMERCE
Legal guarantee or contractual guarantee?
Within the scope of the online-consultancy of e-commerce from December 10th, an important question has been posed and also been answered: if, e.g. at a cross-border purchase of a digicam defects should occur, the service agency of the producer in one’s country can be claimed to or whether it has to be sent back to the selling company (online trader) for the purpose of repair.There you have to distinguish between: the legal guarantee (2 years) that is valid towards the seller. The latter can demand the return for the purpose of repair, but the transport is at his costs.
The contractual guarantee, which is almost always given by the producer and represents a contractual additional performance, can provide the repair service in the proximity of the consumer as well as the return to the parent company. As it concerns an additional performance, limitations and expenses for the consumer can be foreseen.
Our tip: Ask via e-mail your online trader or the producer before the purchase, whether in case of defects you can address yourself to the nearest service agency and if whether is at your costs.
EUROPE
Your voice in Europe
http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice - a dialogue window for the European citizens. This interactive internet page offers the citizens not only various information, advice and assistance, but also invites them regularly to comment the most important subjects of the EU. In fact, thousands of citizens have already given their opinion on the expansion of the EU, the biological food and the data protection; every day, more than 10.000 people visit the site. Innovatory is also the possibility that one can discuss with European commissioners and other decision makers of the EU about current subjects and can therefore actively contribute to the arrangement of politics.THE CASE OF THE MONTH
In the end the nut could be cracked!
A Swedish consumer felt, when trying a cantuccio, how painful and what consequences it can bring when biting on a nut-shell.After a long to and fro with the producing company, its assurance agreed to pay the damages claimed by the European consumer centre on behalf of the consumer.
The Swedish lady will have to bite on that piece of shell for some more time, but nevertheless: a positive example of product liability.
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