Consumer's Telegram October 2016

Insert of n. 69 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Bolzano - Italy)

E-COMMERCE

Online-Dispute Settlement
There are four easy ways to remedy a negative shopping experience: The online dispute settlement. You can try an out-of-court agreement through our portal, when facing problems with online-shopping. Only residents in a EU-Member State or dealers who have a business establishment in a Member State are allowed to use this service. In some member states this portal can also be used by dealers, who want to complain about a consumer in matters of selling goods or services. More information you'll find on the homepage of the European Consumer's Centre Bolzano/Bozen.

E-COMMERCE

Free WLAN: Operators are not liable
A German owner of a music shop offered to his clients a free internet access. One of his customers used this access to provide a music album for download free of carge. In consequence, Sony, the legal owner of the album, appeared and sued the owner. Now the European Legal Court has decided, that the owner is innocent. The owner as a provider for a WLAN-net shall not be liable for legal violations a third person commits. However, the judgement delivered by the Constitutional Court affirms, that the owner can be urged to protect his or her WLAN with a password. With such a measure it can be avoided that somebody commits offences anonymously. More about this issue on the homepage of our Austrian colleagues.

CAR

Traffic Fines Abroad: One has to pay!
This year in March also Italy implemented by the Legislative Decree n. 37 of 2015 the Framework Decision (2005/214/JI) of the Council of the European Union on mutual recognition of fines and financial penalties. The European Consumer's Centre (ECC) provides clarity regarding definite changes for Italian citizens, who received a notification about a road traffic offence committed abroad. However since March nothing stands in the way of enforcing notifications of penalties from abroad: Road traffic offences will be recognized in Italy first and can be enforced subsequently. This implies that all necessary measures will be taken in order to execute the penalty. More information about that you'll find here.


Case of the month
Ms. Frida, an Austrian consumer, was looking forward to a holiday with her family in a pleasant camping site in Tuscany. Since years she has rented a pitch, where she expected an unspoilt environment and where their caravan was immersed in the green. One day she woke up and found that she had been a victim of parsites! Red spots of bug bites covered her body due to badly washed sheets. Frida contacted a doctor, interrupted her stay and returned to Vienna with her family. More than a month had passed, until the spots on her body disappeared: A long time in which she even had to to take medicines. Frida contacted ECC Vienna that subsequently got in touch with their colleagues of our office in Bolzano/Bozen and a complaint was sent to the camping site. Ms. Frida got back 75 % of the payed booking prize and this matter could be settled.