Consumer's Telegram July/August 2016

Insert of n. 48/55 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Bolzano - Italy)

E-COMMERCE

Digital single market: New measures for shopping online
Europe meets consumers' needs and puts an end to barriers that hinder the development of electronic trade. On 25th May the European Commission presented a package of measures with the aim to make online-shopping more secure and easier for consumers within the entire EU area. The package involves the following key elements: 1) Geoblocking and the involved discrimination need to be banned; 2) Border-crossing deliveries need to be more favourable and of high quality; 3) the so-called Consumer Protection Cooperation - so coordination and cooperation within consumers protection - needs to be revised and reinforced. More information on our homepage.

HOLIDAY AND TRAVEL

Travel insurance under the magnifying glass
Whether you need to consult a doctor during your holiday, you can not start your journey at the last moment or you have to cancel immediately after your booking: In order to protect yourself against these risks you can conclude a travel insurance. Taking into consideration that for an Italian consumer it is possible to conclude a travel insurance abroad, the European Consumers Centre's task is to represent Italian consumers. Therefore it searches a suitable travel insurance and summarizes the results in a table. More useful tips you should consider when concluding a travel contract will be found here.

HOLIDAY AND TRAVEL

9th June 2016 - Press conference about travelling
Every day consumers contact the European Consumers Centre with requests concerning the sectors of travelling and holiday. 2,732 consumers having contacted ECC Italy so far in the year 2016 were concernend with 1,378 requests in the field of travelling (50 per cent). This shows the necessity of providing consumers even more current and full support and advice concerning travel. More information about this issue you will find on the website of the European Consumers Centre - Bolzano-Bozen.


Case of the month
Mister K. participated in an auction for a designer watch on eBay and received the bid for 150 Euro. Payment to a private seller from Great Britain was made by a well-known online paying-system based in Luxembourg. Some days later the packet arrived with the auctioned watch. However, the pleasure about the designer accessory did not last too long: Mister K. had doubts about the quality and let a jeweller check the item for its authenticity. In fact, the jeweller found that the designer watch was a counterfeit in the value of only 10 Euro. He was very disappointed and Mister K. contacted the online paying system that told him to send the watch back to its seller and he will get his money back. The consumer did as he was told, but his packet got lost during the delivery. Consequently, the company refused to refund the money. Mister K. asked ECC-Italy - office Bolzano-Bozen for help and they got in touch with their colleagues of ECC-Luxembourg. And, in fact, the intervention of these colleagues was successful: The company refunded Mister K. his money as a gesture of good will.