Press releases

Card schemes and e-merchants are putting pressure on the European Commission and the European Banking Authority (EBA) to postpone the implementation of stronger security rules for online payments.

This week will be crucial for European travellers’ rights as ministers discuss at the EU Council meetings how to support the tourism and transport industries during the COVID-19 crisis. Across Europe, airlines and travel operators have been openly flouting EU consumer law, refusing to reimburse consumers for cancelled travel, while many European governments have turned a blind eye or adopted national laws to impose vouchers or postpone reimbursement claims.

BEUC welcomes a call today by European Commissioner for Justice, responsible for consumer protection, Didier Reynders, for Member States to work on solutions to address the problems of the travel and tourism industry due to COVID-19 but to respect European consumers’ rights.

The current pandemic is a stress test for our health care systems and sky-high medicines prices are one of the problems that need solving. As vaccines, testing kits and treatments are urgently needed to tackle COVID-19, BEUC urges the EU to ensure that public funding into treatment research results in medicines that are affordable to all. Experience shows that public investment in medicines research − such as cancer drugs − does not always ensure fair prices.