Europe

Cross-Border Shopping Within The EU

When a consumer purchases an item while on holiday in the EU or orders items over the Internet from an EU trader they are signing up to a contract that may come under laws which differ to those you would get if you purchased the item from a UK trader.

Where can a consumer go when they have a problem with a cross-border purchase?

Who will be able to advise and offer the consumer help and support?

European Consumer Centre Network

In 2005 the EU launched the European Consumer Network (ECC-Net). The network now consists of 27 centres that cover the EU including Iceland and Norway.

The aim of the network is to provide advice and support to any consumer that has a complaint or dispute to resolve within the EU. In order to do that, the ECC that is contacted by the consumer works together with the ECC of the country where the case originated.

Frequently, the ECC-Net helps consumers who have a complaint to reach an agreement via Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). ADR schemes are out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms conducted by a neutral third party such as a mediator, conciliator or arbitrator.

By providing direct feedback on specific issues of concern to consumers, the ECC-Net also provides valuable input for the European Commission on consumer policy issues.

The Trading Standards Institute is the host of the UK European Consumer Centre based at their Basildon office. This means that any UK consumer that has a problem with goods or services that they have purchased cross border within the EU will be able to get advice and support in order to resolve their claim.

For further information please see their web site www.ukecc.net UK ECC can also be contacted by phone 08456 04 05 03 and by email .

Information on the Single Market.

The Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of the European Commission has three main areas of activity:

* Food Safety: from the Farm to the Fork which covers such areas as:

animal health and welfare, animal feed safety, pesticides, food labelling and much more.

* Public Health

* Consumer Affairs which covers non-food consumer products and services such as:

comparative and misleading advertising, consumer credit, consumer education, dangerous imitations, distance selling, door-to-door sales, e-commerce, guarantees, labelling, package travel, price indications, product liability, product safety and much more.