Beware when buying a car: CJEU judgment on information regarding transfer costs of a motor vehicle

https://www.kues.de/newsdetail.aspx?ID=9572

Cars and consumer information prove to be a tricky combination. 

Today the EU Court of Justice gave judgment in a German case concerning an advertisement for a Citroën motor vehicle (C-476/14). The Court ruled that, pursuant to Directive 98/6/EC on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers, costs in connection with the transfer of a motor vehicle from the manufacturer to the dealer, which are payable by the consumer, must be included in the selling price of that vehicle indicated in an advertisement made by the trader. Such costs form a component of the final price, which enables consumers to evaluate and compare the price of products indicated in an advertisement with the price of other similar products and thereby to make an informed choice on the basis of simple comparisons.

Earlier this year (March 2016), an ECC-Net report has been published about cross-border car purchases and registration, which are prone to fraud. Consumers are recommended to thoroughly check what is being offered, including whether the price of the car is comparable to that of similar models, whether the seller is acting lawfully, and that all the car's documentation is in order. 

So consumers, beware when buying a car!

European Consumer Centres in 2013

In 2013, the European Consumer Centres received over 80 000 contacts, resulting in over 30 000 complaints, with a remarkable increase in both figures compared to 2012.
The Centres provide both amicable advice and assistance in furthering complaints. They only deal with cross-border issues, so it's perhaps not surprising that the field which raises the most concerns is that of transport. Less predictably, also healthcare fares pretty high as the fifth most contentious domain.

For the moment, more specific data are not available, but it's likely that they will be posted on ECC-network website in the coming days.

What do consumers complain about? Prices' and services' differentiation.

The ECC-Net published a report "Enhanced Consumer Protection - the Services Directive 2006/123/EC. Analysis of Article 20.2 and Article 21 related consumer complaints reported to ECC-Net between 2010 and 2012". This network gives consumers free professional advice related to their problems with cross-border transactions within the EU (incl. Norway and Iceland). As the name suggests this report analyses two years worth of reports on consumer complaints submitted with regards to the cross-border transactions they concluded. While the aim of the EU is to create a more uniform European internal market where consumers would be able to benefit from deals not only in their own home countries but also in other European Member States, in order to achieve this objective the same level playing field needs to be created for consumers. This means that consumers should not be discriminated based on their nationality or place of residence (e.g., if you want to buy a good in Poland, you should be offered it under the same price whether you reside in Poland or in Greece). That being said, 74% of the received complaints concerning services showed that consumers were offered different prices (based mostly on their residence ) while buying goods online (167 cases of different treatment out of 222 reported to ECC-Net), 21% complaints were related to services in the tourism industry and 5% in the rental and leasing services. The service providers mostly introduce differences in providing their services and in their prices by either redirecting consumers to national websites for limited access to retail goods, or by tailoring offered services to the consumer's country of residence. Consumers mostly complained about the refusal to supply, price differentiation and difference in other conditions of access (e.g. requirement to have a bank account in a given country). 72 cases out of 222 (32%) required active intervention on behalf of consumers with a nearly 50% rate of success. Only 12 cases were reported to relevant enforcement authorities with only one decision having been made by these authorities. More data can be found in the report, but the ECC-Network signalises that more should be done to make the Services Directive effective for consumer protection.

Impact of the new ADR and ODR rules

Today the ECC-NET holds its annual conference in Dublin during which the impact and the implementation of the forthcoming ADR and ODR legislation will be discussed. (ECC-Net annual conference: EU consumers could save 22.5 billion euro) The Irish European Consumer Centre commissioned a report "The Implication of the Proposed ADR Directive for the Resolution of Consumer Disputes in Ireland" which is available online on their website.

"According to recent research, losses experienced by cross-border shoppers are estimated at EUR 425 million per annum. The European Commission has estimated that if EU consumers can rely on well-functioning and transparent ADR for their disputes, both national and cross-border, they could save around €22.5 billion a year, corresponding to 0.19% of EU GDP. The ADR Directive and ODR Regulation when implemented will allow business to consumer disputes to be settled fast, effectively and cheaply without going to court. Effective ADR offers both business and consumers a win-win situation encouraging consumers to spend secure in the knowledge that if something goes wrong it is easy for them to access redress while business will avoid the costs of going to court". said Dr. Ann Neville (Director of ECC Ireland)

Let it snow!

Since snow is gradually making an appearance across Europe, let us take a look at the ECC-Net report on ski resorts in Europe. The European Consumer Centres Network recognises that skiing (followed by snowboarding, cross-country skiing) is one of the most popular leisure-activities in many European countries. Therefore, it conducted a survey of 26 countries on winter sport resorts to support consumers in their choice of suitable winter vacation. The report is to make it easier for consumers to compare offers of winter holidays in various European countries, showing differences in prices and highlighting custom-made options (like family reductions) in a structured, transparent way.

European online marketplace

The European Consumer Centre Network (ECC-Net) published a new report on cross-border e-commerce and consumers' experiences with it. The report refers to years 2010-2011 and shows that consumers are still not fully comfortable with concluding transactions online even if the number of transactions gradually increases. This could be evidenced by the fact that more than half consumers' complaints that ECC-Net receives concerns online purchases, e.g., defective goods, non-conformity, non-delivery, no right of withdrawal. The most cases are reported in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg. The report contains a checklist both for consumers and traders that they should follow in order to make sure that the transaction will be successful. (Consumers still face obstacles when shopping online)

Be informed

Have you ever been disappointed by shops in another country closing at an earlier time than you thought? Or have you perhaps been pleasantly surprised by sales being held at a different time than you expected? In order to provide consumers with some practical information about shopping in different Member States, the UK European Consumer Centre has recently started publishing 'EU shopping guides'. These leaflets provide details about, for example, pricing, tax, opening hours and banking services in EU Member States. The first guide concerned the UK itself and was published at the occasion of the Olympic Games of this year. Shopping guides for other EU countries are being made available on the UK ECC's website as they appear.

Leaving on a jet plane

Tomorrow, 4th of July, European Consumer Centres (ECC-net) will be offering advice to passengers at 28 airports across Europe. The purpose of the event is to inform European citizens of their air passenger rights, a topic that is among the ones most dealt with by ECC-net when helping consumers. According to recent data, in 2011 a fifth of the complaints that European Consumer Centres dealt with (5 600 of 28 000) concerned air travel:

'The main causes for complaint were cancelled flights (about 30% of the cases), delays (24%), lost or damaged luggage (15%), but also denied boarding, non-transparent prices and surcharges, technical problems in the booking process or unfair commercial practices.'

The ECC-net helped travellers reach amicable solutions with airlines in almost 50% of the cases.

More information is available in the European Commission's press release on tomorrow's event and on the ECC-net's website.

In the meantime, as air passenger rights are concerned, we await the CJEU's judgment in cases C-581/10 and C-629/10 (Nelson and Others, TUI Travel and Others) (a summary of AG Bot's opinion in these cases appeared on this blog earlier).

2020 vision on health and consumers

Today, the European Commission presented its proposals for its new Health and Consumer Programmes for the period 2014-2020. Commissioner Dalli observed that '[t]hese two programmes are about people; about fostering the conditions for people to live to their full potential and play a key role in society and in the economy. Keeping people healthy and active for longer is good for people and is good for jobs and growth. Confident, empowered consumers create thriving markets. I am confident the two programmes will make a significant contribution to achieving Europe 2020 goals – to create smart, sustainable and inclusive growth by the end of this decade'.

The proposed Consumer Programme aims at improving possibilities for consumers to actively take part in the internal market, in particular by:

- enhancing product safety through effective market surveillance;
- improving consumers' information, education and awareness of their rights;
- consolidating consumer rights and strengthening effective redress, especially through alternative dispute resolution;
- strengthening enforcement of rights cross-border.

In relation to these points, the Commission indicates that it intends to enhance consumer awareness of available rights under EU law, for instance through giving more publicity to the work of the ECC-net (network of European Consumer Centres).

Online traders' cooperation needed to open the internal market

Another interesting statistics have been made as far as consumers online shopping is concerned (Online shopping: cross-border deliveries found reliable but few traders sell abroad in the EU). Shoppers of 17 European Consumer Centres made a total of 305 online purchases from foreign EU-based traders in 28 countries. The products where then returned in conformity with EU rules on the right of withdrawal. What were the findings? Mainly: 94% of products were delivered (66% in 2003) and only 1% thereof was faulty or different than ordered, which suggests that purchasing products cross-border is as reliable as domestic transactions. When products were returned, in 90% cases the product cost was reimbursed. However, 57% of shopper had problems with reimbursement of original delivery costs. Also, some trader placed extra (illegal) restrictions on returning the goods (e.g. limiting the cooling off period or announcing that there is none). Another upsetting finding was that 60% of the websites was unsuitable for online shoppers from other countries (e.g. delivery abroad was impossible). It seems, therefore, that consumers have more and more reasons to trust in online cross-border transactions. However, the internal market will not develop further if sellers are not willing to conduct their business with customers living in other Member States, as well.

Full report may be found here.

Air Passenger Rights Day 2011

Yesterday European Consumer Centres' were celebrating Air Passenger Rights Day 2011. Under a motto "Pack a little consumer know-how, Europe offers you free help and advice" at 27 airports (in 23 countries) free advice was given to consumers regarding cases of their flights' cancellations, delays and baggage loss. The ECC Network helps consumers to claim their rights in case the airline they were flying with was registered in another Member State.

Press release on this action may be found here.

Photos from the event may be found here.

Time to sum up – ECC net annual report

The European Consumer Centres all over Europe are proud of themselves. Such conclusion may be drawn from the ECC’ network 2010 Annual Report. The ECC-net aims at “breaking the ice” among consumers in relation to active participation in the Common Market.
No doubt that such pan European initiative is very valuable. In my opinion, information activities and campaigns are of prime importance. As I gathered my early consumer experience in the Polish Consumer Centre, I am still not “satisfied” enough. I definitely would like to “empower” the Centres more.

The ECC-net exists quite a long time because since 1992. Centres conduct information, advisory activities and promotional campaign in the area of consumer issues.

Mission? Provide the consumers with a complete service starting from information concerning their consumer rights and ending with the aid in taking into consideration their complaints and settlement of disputes.

Practice? According to the report, in 2010 problems with products and services purchased in another Member State remained on top of the list (compared to 2009, generating 29.5% of all complaints). Besides products and services, most complaints related to problems with delivery (23.7%), contract terms (12.2%) and price and payment (10.5%). E-commerce transactions represented 56.2% of all complaints which is a slight increase compared to 2009 (55.9%).

Transport remains the number one problem sector for consumers In 2010, 33.2% of the complaints concerned the Transport sector, and 57% of these complaints related to air passenger’s rights. The percentage of complaints in the transport sector increased by 10% compared to 2009 (30.6%) partly due to the closure of the European airspace because of the “volcanic ash cloud crisis”.

It is worth considering that an increasing number of consumers turn to the ECC-net for help. In 2010 the centres handled over 71,000 contacts with consumers. This showed an increase of more than 15% compared to 2009, when the ECC-Net handled over 60,000 contacts.