Consumer's Telegram December 2020

Insert of n. 93 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre Italy - Bolzano office)

ECC-NET

The network of European Consumer Centres celebrates 15th birthday

Since its foundation in the year 2005, the network of European Consumer Centres (ECC-Net) has been able to help more than a million consumers. In the context of the Corona pandemic alone, more than 90,000 consumers have contacted the network. On November 20th its 15th anniversary was celebrated with an online event and the launch of the brandnew website of the network. Among other things, a report with milestones of the past 15 years can be found there. In addition, the future vision of the ECC-net is presented: In an increasingly digital world, the network wants to offer consumers an even better service and promote sustainable consumption (www.eccnet.eu).

WIRECARD INSOLVENCY

Information for consumers

On the one hand, the Wirecard AG managed payment processes for prepaid cards issued by partner companies and, on the other hand, the company offered payment methods for mobile terminals, such as “Pay&Protect” or “boon.planet”. On August 25th the company announced its bankruptcy and an insolvency administrator was appointed to carry out the necessary investigations. Some consumers who had made use of payment services of Wirecard then also contacted the European Consumer Centre (ECC) Italy.
Check the ECC website to see what tips they have for affected consumers.

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

How much is separate use when exercising right of withdrawal?

Recently, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) made an important decision in connection with distance contracts, thereby removing doubts of interpretation with regard to those cases in which the consumer agreed to the service before the expiry of the 14-day right of withdrawal.
In accordance with the ECJ judgement, the price agreed for all services at the time of conclusion of the contract must be used to calculate the services partially provided and must be calculated in relation to the period during which the consumer has used the service. It is only where the contract expressly provides that one or more of the services are to be provided in full from the beginning of the performance of the contract and separately, for a price which must be paid separately, that the full price for such a service should be taken into account in the calculation of the amount owed to the trader For more information on this issue, please visit the ECC website.

CASE OF THE MONTH
An Italian consumer ordered two tickets from a Spanish website at a price of 790 euros for the Barcelona v Atletico Madrid football match. The game should have taken place in April 2020, but had to be cancelled due to Corona.
Subsequently, the consumer contacted the Spanish seller and asked for a refund of the purchase price. The seller offered the consumer a refund, but deducting a service charge. The consumer agreed to this. However, in the following months, when no reimbursement was made, despite repeated assertions on the part of the seller, the consumer turned to ECC Italy, which referred the case to its colleagues in ECC Spain. Within a short time, the Spanish colleagues succeeded in helping our consumer, and he eventually obtained the amount of 740 euros.