english 
deutsch 
italiano
Consumer's Telegramm European Edition
If you wish to be informed monthly about European consumer news, just subscribe our free newsletter.Consumer's Telegram December 2006
Insert of n. 77 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Bolzano - Italy)BROCHURE
Importing Cars on Your Own from the EU
Buying a new car is certainly not a small acquisition which is made between two cups of tea: as the deal mostly involves quite a sum of money it is important to think over it well, no matter if you buy the car in Italy or you have a look at other countries. In fact, a glance to our European neighbours regarding prices and buying conditions can be very interesting.However, how does it work to import a car? Which documents do you need? How can I insure the car on the transport? Where do I have to pay the VAT and how much is it? Which EURO class is my vehicle bought in a foreign country?
An answer to these and other questions can be found in a new information leaflet with the title ‚Autoselbstimport aus der EU’ (Importing cars on your own from the EU) offered by the European Consumer Centre. You can have a free copy of the brochure at the European Consumer Centre Bolzano (Brennerstraße 3, phone 0471-980939) or by mail if you send a stamp of 1,40 Euro.
CONTRACTS OF SALE
When do you have the Right of Rescission?
Sometimes it can happen that you sign a contract, thinking that you can rescind from it anyway: but this is not true. The rescission from the contract is an exception and not the rule; you have the right to rescind only in very special cases defined by law:- For contracts which are signed off store (on the street, at your home)
- For sale contracts of distance (mail-order business, online purchase)
- For time-sharing contracts
- For life insurances
- For investment contracts signed outside the business offices
What is more, also auction sales of all kinds (including E-bay) are excluded from the right of rescission. This is also true for all tourist and free-time events. Detailed information about this issue can be found (in Italian) on www.euroconsumatori.org/16849v16940d16997.html and www.euroconsumatori.org/16849v21517d21534.html.
INTERNET
Online Bargains? You must be Careful!
Surfing on the Internet has become a common activity for many consumers. And you can find anything online: free tests for your intelligence quotient, free calculation of your life expectance and so on. However, do never forget: nothing is for free!Very often, desperate consumers contact the Consumer Centre because they believed to have used a free offer on the Internet and in the end they could not believe their eyes when they got a high invoice. The fact is, that most of them ticked the field ’I read the common conditions of contract and accept them’ without having really done so.
As many invoices arrived only a long time after the ’free test’, the time period for the right of rescission, which is between 10 and 14 days in different EU countries, had already passed.
Another way to withhold the consumers from asserting their right of rescission is to supply the service immediately: The regulation for the rescission right in fact says that it is annulled if the service has already been supplied.
Therefore the EEJ advises everybody to read all conditions carefully, only in this way you can protect yourself from awful surprises. Moreover you should rely on your sanity and reason: if something seems too good to be true it is probably a fake!
TRAVELLING
Air transport: Report about Complaints in the Year 2005
The network of the European Consumer Centres (EEJ-Net) analysed the inquiries to the consumer centres regarding air travelling in 2005: There were 1,195 enquiries for information and 1,521 complaints.The interpretation of the numbers showed that most complaints referred to the luggage (24%), followed by delays (23%) and flight annulments (22%). The biggest part of airlines concerned by complaints was from Ireland (17%) and the United Kingdom (16%), while most of the complaining consumers came from Spain (18%), Germany (13%), Britain (13%) and Sweden (12%).
Unfortunately, the result of numerous complaints is still unsatisfying for many consumers: one third of the cases were not resolved. The main reasons for that was the refusal of the airlines to pay refunds for extraordinary events for which they did not feel responsible (9%) as well as a missing reply from the airline (7%).
Only 28% of the other cases were settled in a positive way, of 27% of the complaints the result is not known and in 12% of the cases the time limits for complaints were exceeded or there was no valid reason for complaining.
 |
|
| software by endo7 |    |
ECC
via Brennero 3
I - 39100 Bolzano
tel.: ++39 0471 980939
fax: ++39 0471 980239