The European Commission (EC) has recently launched an online guide (eYouGuide) on the rights of European consumers when navigating or performing commercial transactions on the Internet. At the same time, European Commissioners Viviane Reding (Information Society and Media) and Meglena Kuneva (Consumer Rights) have issued a common "digital agenda", with eight priority areas for possible Community action on the rights of consumers when it comes to electronic commerce.
The provision of the eYouGuide responds to a request made by the European Parliament in 2007 and aims to provide European consumers who browse the Internet or shop online with clarification as to their rights. This will contribute to addressing the scenario, revealed by the latest Eurobarometer, where only 12 percent of European Internet users feel secure when performing transactions online. The same survey also shows that 39 percent have significant concerns about security and 42 percent are unlikely to perform financial transactions online.
Meanwhile, seeking to draw attention to gaps in the rules governing electronic commerce and consumer rights, Commissioners Reding and Kuneva identified eight potential areas for priority action:
- Combating spam with similarly effective civil and criminal sanctions in all EU Member States and neighbouring countries;
- Paving the way for multi-territorial licensing regimes for online content, so that it makes no difference to consumers which EU country the digital content originates from;
- Ending the current fragmentation of laws on "private copying";
- Extending the principles of consumer protection rules to cover licensing agreements of products like software downloaded for virus protection, games or other licensed content;
- Guarantee that privacy policies linked to online offers are properly disclosed and have fair contract terms;
- Tackling the problem of fragmented and incomplete rules on e-accessibility;
- Explore opportunities to strengthen confidence in online payments;
- Working with industry and consumer associations to set up a European system of trustmarks for retail websites that comply with best practices.
The EC is convinced that the provision of clear information to consumers about their rights will increase their confidence and contribute to realizing the full economic potential of the single European market online, which produces revenues in excess of 100 billion euros.
Consult:
- eYouGuide http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eyouguide/
Further information:
- Consumer Rights: Commission wants consumers to surf the web without borders http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/702&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
