Consumer's Telegram June 2016

Insert of n. 41 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Bolzano - Italy)

CONSUMER'S RIGHTS

European Breakfast on May 9th
The European Consumer’s Centre Bolzano/Bozen invited to a special breakfast on the occasion of the European Day on May 9th. In the course of the press meeting consultants reported on last years’ activities. With the foundation of Europe point of views have been changing completely: More and more aspects of our daily life are not regulated according to national terms, but more and more frequently by European provisions. More information here.

E-COMMERCE

Meeting ECC Bolzano/Bozen – Post Police
On May 10th ECC-office Bolzano/Bozen and Post Police held a meeting. During this interesting meeting the parties exchanged ideas and experiences on different issues. In many fields competences of both institutions overlap. The ECC gets at least one request per day from uncertain consumers receiving Pishing-mails and trying to gain access to private data. Similar cases of fraud are spread also via SMS or telephone calls, called Smishing and Vishing. Also in the field of non-existing lotteries swindlers distribute alleged emails that announce profits in the million range. The European Consumer’s Centre offers more information on its homepage.

CAR RENTALl

Insured twice? Car windows too?
Everybody on the road knows that one cannot be careful enough when driving abroad: Also experienced drivers must adapt to unusual factors such as unknown roads, different speed limits and left-hand traffic. However, many drivers do not consider well enough insurance details while booking their rental car. Exactly therefore it can happen that one is confronted with additional costs that were not included in the budget.
Read more about the topic “Car rental and credit card” in our press release. The European Consumer’s Centre offers more information under the phone number 0471/980939 and under the email address: info@euroconsumatori.org.


Case of the month
With the beginning of the warm season many consumers are enjoying a small shopping tour – especially in the field of fashion. Mr. L., a Belgian consumer, decided to look for bargains online in order to get one or more items from Italian sales portals. Mr. L. is probably a very critical consumer and remembers, after his decision to buy a cool jacket, that on the portal he was asked about his origin at the beginning of his virtual tour. Mr. L. finds that he must pay 137 Euro when he declares Belgium as country of delivery. Otherwise, declaring himself as Italian, he would pay only 88 Euro for the same jacket. L. feels discriminated and contacts the Belgic ECC, that forwards the case to ECC Bolzano/Bozen. Small differences in price can be acknowledged by European law according to justified and objective reasons. Nevertheless, there is no way to accept an obvious price difference as the case of Mr. L. shows. The ECC Bolzano/Bozen solves the problem by contacting the Italian company and telling them about the Services Directive. Subsequently, the company corrected the prize according to the consumer’s wish.