At the invitation of the Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) of the European Commission (EC), Brussels hosted last 7 November the seventh meeting of the Group of Experts on Consumer Complaints, which since early 2009 has been advising the EC about the preparation and proposed Europe-wide adoption of a harmonised methodology for classifying and reporting consumer complaints. This is deemed essential to ensure better monitoring of how the market works at European level.
The meeting once again counted the presence of representatives of consumer support associations and services, many of government nature, from various European countries, as well as national regulatory authorities from some member states active in different economic sectors. ANACOM was represented as responsible for co-chairing the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) working group dedicated the interests of electronic communication service end users.
The main point on the working agenda was to report on various member states’ efforts to implement the Commission recommendation on use of a harmonised methodology to classify and communicate consumer complaints and information requests. The Commission has throughout this year promoted visits to various countries to obtain details about progress made toward implementing the recommendation.
The work concluded with the European Commission's expectation that over the course of 2012 the member states will achieve conditions to ensure that consumer complaints and information requests are reported according to the methodology set out in the recommendation.
