Dr. Georg Rathwallner - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Dr. Georg Rathwallner
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Consumer Protection ... circumstances delaying tactics until the claim barred by the statute of limitation Denied Air Passenger Rights * consumer receive scams ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation
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Title: Dr. Georg Rathwallner
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- Dr. Georg Rathwallner
- Consumer Protection
- Chamber of Labor Upper Austria
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The Austrian consumers in the single market
- I come from Upper Austria, a region with about
1.4 Mio inhabitants. - The consumer protection center in Linz received
94.600 enquiries and complaints last year, most
of them by phone or e-mail. The most important
communication channel is our website
www.ooe.konsumentenschutz.at with more than 2
million visits last year.
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Cross border complaints
- Most of the enquiries and complaints concern
Austrian companies. - Only about 3 refer to single market questions.
- We try to resolve trans border complaints too,
sometimes in cooperation with the European
Consumer Centre (ECC) in Vienna or - our NEPIM Partners in Belgium, France, Spain,
Italy and Germany or our friends of the Financial
Services Ombudsman Network in UK and Ireland.
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Cross border-shopping in most cases via Internet
- 81 of Austrian households are equipped with an
internet access - 54 of persons aged 16 to 74 are
internet-shoppers - Amazon is the nr. 1
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The most popular product groups for
Internet-shoppers
- clothing and sports articles
- flights and other travel arrangements
- books, e-books and
- tickets for events
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Problems in the Single Market
- Discrimination in access to services
- Denied Air Passenger Rights
- Fraud in cross-border commerce
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Discrimination in access to services and goods
- Austrian consumers are confronted
- with a refusal to supply
- or higher prices
- on the grounds of their nationality or place of
residence - when attempting to access services at a
cross-border level. - Such practices are prohibited by the EU Services
Directive!
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Discrimination in access to services and goods
- Consumers are most frequently confronted with
price differentiation when trying to purchase . - goods such as electronic items, clothes and
digital downloads (74 ) - tourism and leisure services (21 ) and in
- car rental services (5 )
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Discrimination in access to services and goods
- Example 1
- Two families resident in Italy booked a stay in
an Italian hotel via an Austrian tour operator.
Upon arrival at the hotel, the families were
asked to pay an additional fee of 400. When
queried, the hotel and tour operator informed the
consumers that Italians are obliged to pay an
additional fee for a club card enabling them to
use the hotels amenities. After intervention by
ECC Austria the tour operator refunded the
additional fee of 400
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Discrimination in access to services and goods
- Example 2
- Austrian consumers booked a ferry trip from
Venice to Patras with the company Minoan Lines.
Due to economic reasons the route was cancelled.
Minoan Lines offered a refund of the ticket costs
of 800,--. However, the consumers did not
receive the promised refund. Due to the
intervention of ECC Austria and ECC Greece the
consumers were reimbursed
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Denied Air Passenger Rights
- Denied boarding, flight cancellation, delayed
flights - Since 2005 passengers have rights of compensation
up to 600 (EC Regulation 261/2004) - But some airlines deny this right of
compensation Condor, Vueling, Ryan Air, Air
Berlin
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Denied Air Passenger Rights
- no answer from airline
- refer to extra ordinary circumstances
- delaying tactics until the claim barred by the
statute of limitation
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Fraud in cross-border commerce
- consumer receive scams involving
- purchase of used cars online
- counterfeit products
- alleged free trials
- the sale of tickets online and
- data phishing
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Fraud in cross-border commerce
- Many complaints concerning online-tickets
- consumers must pay the tickets in advance, which
should only be delivered a few weeks or days
before the concert. - De facto, however, a delivery never took place.
The companies over which the tickets were bought,
also do not respond to requests for reimbursement
of affected consumers. - There is a suspicion of fraud in these cases, the
chances to get the ticket costs refunded is
rather low. Consumers only option is the place a
complaint at the police.
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Thank you for your attention!
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- Dr. Georg Rathwallner
- Consumer Protection
- 3112
- 3880
- konsumentenschutz_at_akooe.at
