About: consumer protection Archives

Google, Facebook and Twitter could face fines if they do not change their user conditions to meet the European Commission's demands.

Consumers make hundreds of choices every day, some of  which imply weighing the tradeoffs of joy versus long term health. These are highly subjective decisions, and in a free society adult consumers should have the right to make these choices and not have them dictated to them by public health tsars, writes Fred Roeder.

European Union antitrust regulators fined Facebook €110 million on Thursday (18 May) for giving misleading information during a vetting of its deal to acquire messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.

The rise of counterfeit smartphone devices in the EU in 2015 is dealing a severe blow to industry sales and consumer safety, a new report has warned.

The Council agreed on a solution to end roaming fees in 2017, while lessening the impact on mobile operators. But consumer organisations warned against operators hiking domestic prices as compensation.

Dismantling democracy, millions spent in lawsuits and jobs in peril. A study into the effects of the planned CETA and TTIP agreements on the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia has revealed a grim picture. Bleaker still is the conclusion that the results can be applied to all of Germany. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Innovation and consumer protection are not opposites. Indeed there is huge potential to use innovation to deliver safer products that benefit consumers, writes Monique Goyens.

The European Commission will ask member states to review and amend legislation, when necessary, to end the fragmentation faced by Uber, Airbnb and other collaborative platforms in Europe, EURACTIV.com has learned.

Greenpeace said yesterday (1 May) it was in possession of leaked documents showing that a planned huge free trade deal between the United States and the European Union poses "major risks for climate, environment and consumer safety".

Germans throw away 82kg each in food waste every year, despite much of it still being edible. Minister of Food and Agriculture Christian Schmidt (CSU) wants things to change and to abolish the expiration date on packaging in favour of more scientific alternatives. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The Bucharest government wants to give organic farming a boost and - at the same time - increase consumers’ confidence in the sector. EURACTIV Romania reports.

It is in the public interest to have a well-functioning legislative and regulatory body that is appropriate for the context. However, it raises many questions about the objectives being pursued, writes Reine-Claude Mader.

Consumer organisations in three EU countries lodged complaints against US-based dating app Tinder today (3 March) for its restrictive user contracts.

TTIP's detractors continue to fear the impact it could have on environmental and consumer protection and now the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) has criticised certain aspects after carrying out careful analysis. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Migrants processing Thai chicken for its biggest export market, Europe, face widespread abuse by their employers, partly because foreign auditors have focused on food safety rather than workers' conditions, researchers said on Wednesday (25 November).

Restaurants in Brussels are cheating customers by substituting cheaper fish in one out of three dishes, including under the noses of eurocrats in the European Union's own canteens, campaigners said yesterday (3 November).

A Greenpeace study has shown that pesticide residue affects 83% of conventionally-produced German apples. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The EU’s Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström was amazed at German criticism over the planned EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and emphasised its benefits in an interview with Tagesspiegel.

Germany shows significant discrepancies among private users with regard to protection against cyber attacks, a recent study shows, with internet users growing increasingly uneasy despite an improved security situation. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Ex-World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said on Thursday (7 May) that improved consumer protection was at the heart of the US-European Union free-trade pact under negotiation.

The European Commission said Tuesday (24 March) its officers had raided several companies involved in selling consumer electronics online, concerned that firms may have worked together to distort prices.

The EU-US free trade agreement, TTIP, is a big lie, says Thilo Bode, the director of the NGO Foodwatch, discussing his latest book on the transatlantic trade deal.

Doctors in Germany often prescribe medications without any proof of additional benefit, a recent study indicates, revealing that the reasons behind this are unscientific. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Consumer rights NGO foodwatch sharply criticised a German Development Ministry study on TTIP, saying the planned EU-US free trade agreement is a poverty scheme for the world’s poorest countries, and is an “interest-driven sham”. EURACTIV Germany reports.