Environmentally friendly food - new EU logo helps in recognition of organic products

Another interesting news for consumers: as of 1 July 2012 also the new EU organic logo becomes obligatory on all pre-packaged organic food products produced in the EU. This means that any European product without this logo which claims to be organic, has not, in reality, fulfilled the European norms set for organic products. Imported products as well as non-packed organic products may choose to use this logo, as well. This does not mean that other logos confirming the organic character of the product will disappear from the labels, e.g., of received private certificates or regional logos (see pictures below this post for examples thereof). However, consumers who were confused by different logos on the organic products and doubted as to the product's organic character will be able to get some clarity now - they just need to look for the logo of an "Euro-leaf" (on the right).

This logo was introduced 2 years ago but with a two-year transition period before it became mandatory. Still, in the past two years almost a quarter of EU citizens already learned to recognize it.

"The visual field of the logo should also show the code number of the control body and the place of farming of the agricultural raw materials." (EU organic logo fully up and running from 1 July 2012)

Holiday savings - new roaming rules into force on 1 July

Today, the European Commission published a press release on the new EU rules on roaming charges that will come into force on 1 July 2012.

Good news for travellers with a weakly developed sense of direction, news addicts and users of digital services in general: For the first time, there will be a cap on so-called 'data roaming', meaning the downloading of data from the internet through a mobile connection (see also an earlier post on this blog). This should bring down the prices for accessing maps, videos, social networks and digital media while roaming through the EU, or at least make sure that travelling digital consumers will not be surprised by high bills when returning home. Furthermore, prices for sending text messages and making voice calls will also be cut.

The new maximum charges as of 1st of July will be:

• 29 cents per minute to make a call, plus VAT
• 8 cents per minute to receive a call, plus VAT
• 9 cents to send a text message, plus VAT
• 70 cents per Megabyte (MB) to download data or browse the Internet whilst travelling abroad (charged per Kilobyte used), plus VAT.

See also the European Commission's roaming website.

NO to ACTA... almost there

Just a short update on ACTA (see last: ACTA under more fire). Next week the European Parliament will have to decide whether to accept or reject it (on the 4th of July). Last week the International Trade Committee responsible for issuing an official recommendation voted against adoption of ACTA. (Parliament should say NO to ACTA) More here.

Inducement in doorstep selling contracts

In the last week's European news we could read about an action taken against Germany by the European Commission, urging Germany to stop infringing consumer protection in doorstep selling contracts. That caught my attention since Germany is known to actually try to go beyond the minimum level of harmonisation given in the Doorstep Selling Directive (85/577/EEC). This was one of the arguments raised against the introduction of the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) with a maximum harmonisation character.

Apparently, while Germany gives some more rights to consumers concluding contracts in door-to-door situations, it also introduces one extra requirement for recognising that a contract was concluded 'at the doorstep'. Namely, consumers needed to be induced into entering into the contract. This is interesting, since this requirement actually reflects the economic rationale behind many provisions of the Doorstep Selling Directive. After all, it mainly aims at protecting consumers who were surprised by a salesman in situations they had not expected to have to negotiate a contract (i.e., outside business premises of the salesman when the consumer did not come out with an initiative to conclude a contract). It could be seen, therefore, that putting this requirement to paper should not infringe the consumer protection.

The European Commission points out, however, that the requirement of 'inducement' has not been mentioned either in the Doorstep Selling Directive or in the Consumer Rights Directive. Its explicit addition makes it harder to claim consumer protection since it may be difficult to prove that the contract was concluded under inducement. And so, in some German court cases consumers were unable to prove that the doorstep-selling situation was decisive for the signing of the contract because of previous visits by the trader. (Commission stands up for consumer rights) I wonder whether the European Commission's decision would have been the same if the burden of proof was placed on the trader, that is if he had to prove that there was no inducement instead of consumers having to prove its existence.

Mandatory eCalls (EU life-saving system)?

Last year we mentioned that the European Commission issued a recommendation to mobile phone operators asking them to transmit eCalls properly (eCalls - towards a European life-saving system). Last week the European Parliament adopted a resolution pursuant to which all new cars should be fitted with eCall devices by 2015. 

An eCall device automatically alerts emergency services about road crashes through the public 112 emergency call system. This is seen as enabling the emergency services to arrive earlier at the scene of an accident, which may diminish the loss of lives and prevent more serious injuries. At the same time, these devices does not enable monitoring of car users' location unless an accident happens, which means that they do not infringe users' right to have their data protected.

Despite the strong support of eCalls in the EU institutions only a small number of cars is fitted with such devices up to now (ca 0,4%). Obviously, the industry does not put priority on deployment of such systems, which led the European Parliament to urge the European Commission to come with an appropriate legislative proposal to make this system mandatory by 2015.

"According to estimates, the eCall system would save up to 2500 lives a year and reduce the severity of injuries by 10 % to 15 %, the resolution states." (MEPs say mandatory emergency eCall system in cars will save lives)

Wanted: innovation

Last week the European Commission has launched a public consultation which would enable it to determine what kind of EU-level actions to undertake in relation to industrial innovation policy. This concerns consumers directly, since the more attention and support is given to the industrial innovation, the more likely it is that the products that consume less energy and/or are friendlier to the environment will become more available and affordable for consumers. (Boosting the demand for innovative European products and services) The public consultation is supposed to create a platform for bringing up ideas that would facilitate uptake of innovations on EU markets. See more here.

You take the plane, and I'll take the train - on uniform passenger rights

Since I've been mostly travelling in the past month (the photo is one of the favourite ones I took in Mexico City), it's nice to find more EC news on consumer travel. While I mostly used air planes, there were also some buses and railways involved here and there. It would have been nice to know that as a passenger I had the same rights while using all these transport modes, or at least that if things went wrong I could expect similar assistance and complaint handling procedures. At this point, there is no uniform regulation of passenger rights for different transport modes in Europe. But this may change. 

This Tuesday there was a hearing organized in the European Parliament's Transport Committee with stakeholders from various travel organisations and consumer organisations in order to discuss strengthening of passenger rights. A survey prepared by Georges Bach was discussed (Draft report on passenger rights in all transport modes) in order to identify and find solutions to current EU travel issues. The survey mentions as such: unclear online pricing, lack of information while travelling, poor service for passengers with disabilities (see previous post), poor complaint procedures.

A good idea would be to draft one set of rules for enforcement of passenger rights - regardless the mode of transportation. This would give consumers clarity and legal certainty as to how to proceed when things go wrong during their trips. Unfortunately, this is seen as infeasible at the moment due to lack of experience with enforcement of rights for ship and bus passengers (these will only enter into force in 2013). Matthias Ruete, the Commission's Director General for transport, promises a revision of air passengers rights instead. This, however, was already on the table - so no news there.

"Monique Goyens of the European Consumers Organisation (BEUC) advocated enforceable pricing rules to halt the proliferation of unfair contractual terms and surcharges for basic services that should be automatically included in the fare." (MEPs assess how to strengthen passenger rights in all transport modes)

Unclear pricing is a huge issue for consumers, so it doesn't surprise that it was singled out in these talks as well. Hopefully, after many resolutions on this in the Parliament and many voices raised to change the transparency of the pricing policy this will finally get a priority at a drafting table in the European Commission.

Challenges of air travel

Most of us take it for granted that we can reach any destination within a frame of few hours, making use of advanced air travel options. However, for many disabled consumers air travel still is associated with lots of problems and unfair treatment. In order to fight this the European Commission has published guidelines on air travellers' rights. (What passengers with reduced mobility need to know when travelling by air) (based on the Regulation EC 1107/2006)

In general, persons with reduced mobility have a right to travel by air, but there are certain obligations placed on them, as well. Most importantly, a disabled person needs to notify airports and airlines about the need for special assistance at least 48 hours before the published time of departure. This allows the service providers to prepare special means that may be required (currently, only ca 40% of passengers pre-notify their assistance needs). A person with reduced mobility should not be refused travel on the ground that they don't present a medical certificate (if the medical condition is stable - e.g., a blind person) or that they don't have an accompanying person (if they are self-reliant). Moreover, such persons are allowed to travel with two pieces of mobility equipment (transported for free), a guide or assistance dog. Still, despite the Regulation binding the airlines already they continue to hinder air travel for disabled passengers and discriminate against them, for example:

"A senior UN official was denied boarding on a flight from Heathrow to Geneva because he was unaccompanied. The official was a paraplegic frequent traveller who had travelled unaccompanied for fifteen years."

"3 passengers on internal French flights were denied boarding because they were unaccompanied. They later successfully challenged the decision in court. The airline and ground-handling company faced substantial fines for non-compliance."

It gets a bit complicated when a passenger requires oxygen on board. The airlines may determine themselves whether to allow access to passengers with their own oxygen and they are not required to provide oxygen themselves either. This may mean that such passengers won't be in practice allowed to travel by air. The guidelines aim at least to provide passengers with certain clarity, advising airlines to make their rules on travelling with oxygen clear.

Can ECCs help you as well?

In 2011, over 70 000 consumers received free advice and assistence from the European Consumer Centres Network.

The centres, established in every EU country (plus Norway and Iceland), offer advice before purchasing something cross-border and assistance in case something goes wrong. 

In 2011, the majority (ca. 54%) of the cases handled by ECCs was either solved directly (ca. 41%) or handled to other organisations (ca. 13%). When a solution could not be reached, this was largely due to lack of cooperation on the side of businesses, but also, in increased proportion since the previous year, some of the claims were simply found to be... unfounded. If you are experiencing problems, then, it might be definitely worth a try.

More facts and contacts (including where to find ECCs in the various countries) can be found in the easy-to-read report brochure.

Outdoing Huxley

Data protection is high on the agenda of the European Commission, as is attested by the pending proposals for reforming the existing EU data protection framework (see earlier posts on this blog 'EU data protection reform' and 'EU data protection reform announced').

Last Monday, Commissioner Reding gave a speech on the topic at the Digital Enlightenment Forum in Luxembourg: 'Outdoing Huxley: Forging a high level of data protection for Europe in the brave new digital world'. She set out the Commission's aims in the field and explained the background to the proposals:

'Control of every movement, every word or every e-mail made for private purposes is not compatible with Europe's fundamental values or our common understanding of a free society. This is why the Union's Charter of fundamental rights recognises both the right to private life in Article 7 and the right to the protection of personal data in Article 8. But this is not all: Article 16 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union also gives the European Union the legislative competence to establish harmonised EU data protection laws that apply to the whole continent and that make the right to data protection a reality. Data protection is thus one of the rare fields where we have full coherence between the fundamental right and the EU’s legislative competences of the EU. This makes data protection a particularly powerful fundamental right in the European Union, and the Commission’s proposals from 25 January have been designed to put this right into practice everywhere in our internal market.'

Reding's speech replied to some points of criticism that the proposals encountered so far (e.g. from the European Data Protection Supervisor, see 'Critical look at the new data protection rules'). Regarding possible problems related to the enforcement of the proposed rules, she observed:

'In the interest of legal certainty and of fair competition, we have introduced a one-stop-shop system.

For the consumer, this means that they will always turn to their national data protection authority when they have a problem with a company – no matter where the company is based. They will not have to labour through the process of contacting authorities in different EU countries, riddled as it is with problems of different languages or procedures. We make things easy for the consumer.

The same un-bureaucratic one-stop-shop exists for companies as well. They will only have to deal with one data protection authority: in the country in which they have their main establishment. This cuts costs while increasing legal certainty.'

On the point of possibly conflicting fundamental rights, such as the rights to privacy and data protection (incl. a 'right to be forgotten') v freedom of the press, Reding added:

'We are thus allowing Member States to create rules to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the rules governing freedom of expression.

This is certainly a difficult balancing act, and one that can only be achieved in the knowledge of the specific details of each individual case and the specific national circumstances. In short, the right to be forgotten is not an absolute right, it is a relative right. Like the general right to privacy, it is a right that needs to be reconciled with other rights which are also protected by the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.'

See the website of the Digital Enlightenment Forum for more information and the programme of the meeting.

Analogue enlightenment - Luminara di San Ranieri, Pisa, 16 June 2012