European Commission Launches eYouGuide

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

08 May 2009

The European Commission today launched the eYouGuide, a new online tool giving practical advice on the ‘digital rights’ consumers have under EU law.

The guide, which responds to a call from the European Parliament in 2007, addresses consumer issues like the rights towards your broadband provider, shopping on the web, downloading music and protecting your personal data online and on social networking sites.

Even though 48.5% of EU households have a broadband internet connection, a new Eurobarometer survey shows that a lack of confidence still holds many consumers back from online transactions. Only 12% of EU web users feel safe making transactions on the internet, while 39% of EU internet users have major doubts about safety, and 42% do not dare carry out financial transactions online. 65% of internet users in the EU do not know where to get information and advice about cross-border shopping in the EU. A third of consumers would consider buying online from another country because it is cheaper or better, but only 7% actually do so. Giving consumers clear information about their rights will increase trust and help unlock the full economic potential of Europe's single online market, worth EUR106bn in revenues.

Meglena Kuneva, the EU Consumer Commissioner commented:

"In the EU, consumer rights online should not depend on where a company or website is based. National borders should no longer complicate European consumers' lives when they go online to buy a book or download a song", said Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "In spite of progress made, we need to ensure that there is a single market for consumers as well as businesses on the web.”

"If we want consumers to shop around and exploit the potential of digital communications, then we need to give them confidence that their rights are guaranteed. That means putting in place and enforcing clear consumer rights that meet the high standards already existing in the main street. Internet has everything to offer consumers, but we need to build trust so that people can shop around with peace of mind.”

The European Commission has laid out eight priority areas where it could act further enhance consumer confidence and the single market for businesses:

• Combating spam with similarly effective civil and criminal sanctions in all EU Member States and neighbouring countries. A ‘ban on spam’ has been part of EU law since 2003, but 65% of Europeans still complain about ‘excessive spam’. While 19.8% of spam globally comes from the US and 9.9% from China, 23.4% comes from Europe with Italy (3%), Spain (2.9%), UK (2.7%) and Germany (2.4%) among the ‘Top 12’. To this, add the EU's neighbours Turkey (4.4%) and Russia (6.4%).
• Ensuring that from for consumers, it does not matter which EU country digital content (music, games, films, books) comes from, by paving the way for multi-territorial licensing regimes for online content.
• Giving consumers certainty about what they can and cannot do with copy¬righted songs, videos and films they download, by 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. Licensing should guarantee consumers the same basic rights as when they purchase a good: the right to get a product that works with fair commercial conditions.
• Guarantee that privacy policies linked to online offers are properly disclosed and have fair contract terms.
• Tackling fragmented and incomplete rules on e-accessibility to make it easier for disabled people (15% of the EU population) to use websites, electronic payments and other online services.
• Explore opportunities to strengthen confidence in online payments, including successful models such as credit card charge back schemes that allow customers to cancel payments to non compliant traders as a last resort.
• Working with industry and consumer associations to set up a European system of trustmarks for retail websites that comply with best practices.

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