Nemzeti Fogyasztóvédelmi Hatóság

ECC-Net Annual Report 2012, reveals - European Consumer Centres across the EU handled more than 72,000 enquiries from consumers during 2012. More than half of these contacts related to 32,000 complaints about a purchase made in another EU country, Norway and Iceland. Around 60% of complaints concerned e-commerce. About one third of all complaints related to the transport sector, of which 22% were linked to the air transport. More than half of complex complaints were resolved amicably or passed on to other organisations. The annual report also gives key details on ECC-Net activities in 2012 and success stories per countries where the network operates. You can find the full report here.

The European Commission has today adopted a European Retail Action Plan and a Green Paper on unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food and non-food supply chain. The retail and wholesale services sector is one of the most important in the EU economy and should play an important part in stimulating growth and job creation under the Europe 2020 strategy. It accounts for 11% of EU GDP and 29% of European SMEs and employs nearly 33 million people, offering job opportunities in particular for young people, women and people with lower skill levels or qualifications. However, a number of barriers remain that hinder the smooth functioning of cross-border sourcing, consumer access to cross-border retail services and market entry for retailers.  >>>

According to the experiences of the Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection (HACP), the number of webshops without any consumer protection problems are increasing: the objection rate has improved from 85 to 70 percent by the end of last year, but was still high. The Association for Electronic Trade (SzEK.org) and the HACP stressed in their joint communication on Friday, that according to the preliminary datas of the eNET market research company, the turnover of webshops was 177 billion HUF in 2012, which is 3 percent of the total retail sales. In one year, about 1.6 million people purchased on the internet, about one in five people over age 14 in Hungary.

The European Commission (EC) has proposed new legislative and non-legislative measures to improve consumer product safety and strengthen market surveillance of all non-food products in the European Union (EU), including those imported from third countries.  The package was adopted by the EC on February 13, 2013, and will be discussed in the European Parliament and in the Council.  The new legislation is expected to come into effect in 2015.  >>>

The European Commission proposed today new rules to improve the safety of consumer products circulating in the Single Market. The two Regulations being proposed, replace several directives and will step-up market surveillance concerning all non-food products, including those imported from 3rd countries. This will contribute both to strengthening consumer protection and to creating a level playing field for businesses. Unsafe products should not reach consumers or other users and their improved identification and traceability will be a key improvement that will help to take them quickly out of the market. Once adopted by the European Parliament and by the Council the new rules will be enforced by the national market surveillance authorities in the Member States which will benefit from strengthened cooperation and enhanced tools to carry out controls.

For further information:

http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/safety/psmsp/

On 13 February 2013 the European Commission will present the Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package, which aims at the improvement of the Market Surveillance systems in the EU Member States. The package will be composed of new enforcement rules for the internal market for goods, which will enable national market surveillance authorities to enforce the law and to provide better and more means to ensure consumer protection. In particular, authorities will be able to better track down unsafe products while at the same time the new rules on consumer product safety will simplify the safety rules for consumer products, and merge them into one single piece of legislation.

The three most important parts of the package will be:

1) A proposal for a new Regulation on Consumer Product Safety (CPSR).

2) A proposal for a single Regulation on Market Surveillance for Products - unifying and simplifying existing fragmented legislation.

3) A multi-annual plan for market surveillance of 20 individual actions that the Commission will undertake over the next three years.

As a result of official meetings that were held in the near past, furthermore, considering the importance of the development of consumer protection and market surveillance as a public interest, István Pintér, Director General of the Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection (HACP) and Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection of the Republic of Poland (UOKIK) committed themselves to renew the agreement of 8 October 2001 on cooperation in the field of consumer protection and market surveillance. >>>

In January 2013 – after months of negotiation – an agreement on cooperation in the field of consumer protection and market surveillance was signed by the HACP and the State Inspectorate of Consumer Rights Protection of Ukraine (DSIU). The Parties are expecting, that the agreement will result the strengthening of professional relations between the respected countries and a more effective protection of cross-border consumer interests. >>>

There are still many infringements occur at product demonstrations, although some improvement can be detected compared to the previous years – shows the report of the Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection. The authority carried out controls at 180 product presentations between 20 February and 16 October 2012 and identified offenses in 117 cases, so the objection rate was 65 percent compared to the 76 percent in the past. According to the summary 53 percent of the presentations contained unfair trade practices.