Consumer's Telegram September 2014

Insert of n. 62 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Bolzano - Italy)


SINGLE MARKET

Cross-border purchase of a car within the EU

The European Consumer Centre in Bolzano provides information and tips for consumers to feel sure and safe when buying a car in another EU Member State and reminds consumers in which matters they should pay particular attention when signing a contract and how to make sure that the car registration in Italy works smoothly. Furthermore, after a thorough check-uo of the chosen car, the ECC advises consumers to watch out for disadvatageous clauses in the contract before signing it, as it may because it could contain expressions that limit or even exclude the guarantee (e. g. "sold als seen" or "dealer business" etc.). See our website for further information on this issue; for brochures please visit us in our office ECC in Bolzano, via Brennero 3 or contact us by telephone 0471-980939.


CAR RENTAL

Discrimination of consumers to be abolished

Recently the European Commission published a letter that had been sent to six international car rental companies. This letter ordered the car rentals to cease their discriminatory practice, that keeps comsumers from many EU-member states from getting the most favourable price on the internet. Some consumers were not allowed to carry out an online booking because of the automatically relevated IP-address. Now, the so-called Services Directive does not allow discrimination based on the citizenship or residence of the consumer when trying to access services offered by companies. In recent years also the European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Bolzano has been dealing intensively with this issue.
For further infomation visit our website.


HOLIDAYS AND TRAVEL

Have you already used your app today?

Going on holiday without considerable inconvenience: the new ECC-net: Travel App works on smartphones and tablets with iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows and can be downloaded in every particular online-store: itunes apple, play google, windowsphone.

ECC Italy on Facebook and Twitter

You find the ECC Italy also in the social network on facebook or on twitter.

Case of the month

In December 2012 an Irish family booked their holiday on a camping site at the Lake Garda for the following summer and paid a deposit of 200 EUR. Some days before the departure the family asked if it was possible to postpone the booking for one year to June 2014. The management of the camping site agreed. In May 2014 the family contacted the campingsite again: Also this year something had cropped up and they were not able to travel. They asked the management again to postpone the booking for yet another year or refund the deposit of 200 EUR. This time they received a different answer: it was too late to cancel the booking and according to the contractual terms a free - with the refund of the deposit - was only possible up to 30 days before the arrival date. The Irish family was quite surprised because on the English version of the website the contract terms were nowhere to be found, nor was this cancellation policy mentioned anywhere else on the website. ECC Italy contacted the camping site on the consumer's behalf and subsequently, the camping site agreed to refund the deposit.