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Consumer Protection in the Single Market

Learn about consumer protection in Austria's single market, including cross-border complaints, discrimination, denied air passenger rights, and fraud in cross-border commerce.

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Consumer Protection in the Single Market

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  1. Dr. Georg Rathwallner ConsumerProtection Chamber of Labor Upper Austria

  2. The Austrian consumers in the single market I come from Upper Austria, a region with about 1.4 Mio inhabitants. The consumer protection center in Linz received 94.600 enquiries and complaints last year, most of them by phone or e-mail. The most important communication channel is our website www.ooe.konsumentenschutz.at with more than 2 million visits last year.

  3. Cross border complaints • Most of the enquiries and complaints concern Austrian companies. • Only about 3 % refer to single market questions. • We try to resolve trans border complaints too, sometimes in cooperation with the European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Vienna or • our NEPIM Partners in Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Germany or our friends of the Financial Services Ombudsman Network in UK and Ireland.

  4. Cross border-shopping in most cases via Internet • 81 % of Austrian households are equipped with an internet access • 54 % of persons aged 16 to 74 are internet-shoppers • Amazon is the nr. 1

  5. The most popular product groups for Internet-shoppers • clothing and sports articles • flights and other travel arrangements • books, e-books and • tickets for events

  6. Problems in the Single Market • Discrimination in access to services • Denied Air Passenger Rights • Fraud in cross-border commerce

  7. Discrimination in access to services and goods Austrian consumers are confronted • with a refusal to supply • or higher prices on the grounds of their nationality or place of residence when attempting to access services at a cross-border level. Such practices are prohibited by the EU Services Directive!

  8. Discrimination in access to services and goods Consumers are most frequently confronted with price differentiation when trying to purchase . • goods such as electronic items, clothes and digital downloads (74 %) • tourism and leisure services (21 %) and in • car rental services (5 %)

  9. Discrimination in access to services and goods Example 1 Two families resident in Italy booked a stay in an Italian hotel via an Austrian tour operator. Upon arrival at the hotel, the families were asked to pay an additional fee of € 400. When queried, the hotel and tour operator informed the consumers that Italians are obliged to pay an additional fee for a club card enabling them to use the hotel’s amenities. After intervention by ECC Austria the tour operator refunded the additional fee of € 400

  10. Discrimination in access to services and goods Example 2 Austrian consumers booked a ferry trip from Venice to Patras with the company Minoan Lines. Due to economic reasons the route was cancelled. Minoan Lines offered a refund of the ticket costs of € 800,--. However, the consumers did not receive the promised refund. Due to the intervention of ECC Austria and ECC Greece the consumers were reimbursed

  11. Denied Air Passenger Rights • Denied boarding, flight cancellation, delayed flights • Since 2005 passengers have rights of compensation up to 600 € (EC Regulation 261/2004) • But some airlines deny this right of compensation: Condor, Vueling, Ryan Air, Air Berlin

  12. Denied Air Passenger Rights • no answer from airline • refer to extra ordinary circumstances • delaying tactics until the claim barred by the statute of limitation

  13. Fraud in cross-border commerce consumer receive scams involving: • purchase of used cars online • counterfeit products • alleged free trials • the sale of tickets online and • data phishing

  14. Fraud in cross-border commerce • Many complaints concerning online-tickets • consumers must pay the tickets in advance, which should only be delivered a few weeks or days before the concert. • De facto, however, a delivery never took place. The companies over which the tickets were bought, also do not respond to requests for reimbursement of affected consumers. • There is a suspicion of fraud in these cases, the chances to get the ticket costs refunded is rather low. Consumers only option is the place a complaint at the police.

  15. Thank you for your attention!

  16. Dr. Georg Rathwallner konsumentenschutz@akooe.at 3112 3880 Consumer Protection

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