The EU and US will hold the first meeting of their Trade & Technology Council this week. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) calls on this Council to ensure that its discussions deliver to consumers, are transparent and clearly explained to the public.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) intervened at EU General Court hearings on 27 September 2021 in support of the European Commission’s July 2018 antitrust decision against Google and its parent company Alphabet for imposing illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to cement its dominant position in general internet search.

Food companies’ commitment to market their products responsibly blatantly fails to protect European children from ads praising unhealthy foods. That is the outcome of a snapshot survey BEUC and ten of its member organisations1 carried out in spring 2021 as part of a project initiated by Professor Amandine Garde of the University of Liverpool.2 With ample evidence that industry self-regulation of food marketing to children is not working, the consumer groups advocate for binding EU rules.

Today the European Commission created a new authority (HERA - European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority) to avoid some of the frailties that the COVID pandemic cruelly exposed in early 2020, when supply chains were severely disrupted and there were shortages of medicines in intensive care units and protective equipment such as masks.