Altroconsumo’s experience of collective redress
If the market is the carrot, then group actions are the stick. The creation of an EU-wide collective redress procedure is currently being hotly debated in Brussels. In Italy meanwhile, the Italian consumer group Altroconsumo has used this stick 14 times...
E-health: your every personal detail online
New technologies have flooded our lives: many day-to-day products and activities now begin with the prefixes i-, e-, cyber-, info-, techno-, m-, net-, tele-, and the list goes on. It’s easy to get lost in this carrousel of innovation! Digitalisation...
Collective redress for European consumers – yes, we can
I was sitting back in a train from Strasbourg to Brussels in early spring 1998. Looking at the landscape in a train often gives you the distance you need to analyse something happening in your life. I was a young...
Financial guidance: the missing tool!
When you’re sick, you go to see a doctor. They usually provide a medical diagnosis and a resulting course of action. It’s the same for legal situations, where you go see your lawyer or notary. But who do you consult...
Fuzzy maths or how the Commission solves ‘costly’ chemicals laws
The European Commission is running EU chemicals laws through its REFIT machine. REFIT sounds like a strenuous fitness regime for overweight risk managers, right!? It’s not. Instead, it is a Commission programme that looks to streamline EU laws – a...
A trans fat-free future
You’ve probably heard of saturated fats in butter, omega 3 in fish, healthy fats in olive oil. But have you ever heard of trans fatty acids (TFAs)? Also called ‘trans fats’ [1], they can hide in processed foods such as...
Chaos and disorder in copyright law – happy #WorldIPDay!
Many of us are mourning the loss of Prince, one of the world’s great music talents. What most of us don’t know is that he was also a champion of copyright enforcement. On the 16th edition of World Intellectual Property...
Whipping up a transatlantic trade agreement? Shop wisely.
The EU and US negotiators of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) meet in New York this week for the 13th round of negotiations. In the media storm that accompanies TTIP it is not easy to keep a bird’s-eye...
Regulators and consumer organisations – less me and more we
Without rules, consumers are at the mercy of traders. The same applies if the rules aren’t enforced. European Commissioner Věra Jourová, in charge of justice and consumer affairs, wants to see a big change in this area calling for proper...
A regulatory tsunami – really?
Memory in politics is often short. Less than a decade after a devastating financial crash caused by a lack of regulation in the financial sector, the gates to deregulation seem to be opening again. Banks like to refer to the...