The European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Luxembourg set a record last year, taking on 4,190 cases and recovering €779,500. The number of requests is growing yearly, which--according to Gaëtane Frey, deputy director of the ECC--bears witness to a growing awareness.
This awareness is particularly visible in air passenger rights, which the CEC attributes to both the development of European regulations and, of course, its own awareness-raising activities. “We’ve noticed that passengers are demanding that their rights be respected,” says Frey. “We can only be delighted about this. Every year, CEC Luxembourg receives an increasing number of complaints--and we believe that this is a sign that consumers are becoming genuinely aware of their rights and are determined to have them recognised.”
“Consumers are now a force to be reckoned with,” she adds. They are feeling less and less like the “weak” party when squaring off with professionals, she says. They know they have rights and can get assistance in having them enforced.
More consumer-friendly professionals
Consumer expectations will undoubtedly influence the procedures of salespeople and businesses, whose commercial approaches will naturally benefit from understanding consumer rights. “It is important that they develop a consumer-friendly approach,” says Frey. “It’s not a question of setting up an opposition between companies and consumers, but of developing an intelligent and cooperative approach--in particular with organisations such as ours, whose aim is for consumer rights to be recognised before anybody goes to court.”
Faced with a myriad of choices, consumers are not only looking for quality products, but are also--increasingly--for a transparent, ethically sound consumer experience. Platforms that let you compare products and read reviews have a big influence, and consumers are increasingly demanding products and services that meet their specific needs. Companies therefore have every interest in developing personalisation strategies, and that extends to consumer rights too: more flexible returns policies, extended warranties, personalised customer service, etc.
On its website, the Consumer Protection Directorate offers .
A long time coming
Another point that should become clearer in 2024 is the democratisation of collective redress. At the European level, such action is already made possible by the directive on representative actions, which provides for all EU countries to have a mechanism whereby representative bodies can take legal action to protect the collective interests of consumers. “It improves consumers’ access to justice, while providing appropriate safeguards to prevent abusive redress,” says the European Commission.
However, the directive has not yet been transposed into Luxembourg law, even though the deadline for transposition was 25 December 2022. “In Luxembourg, there is as yet no such thing as a group action (or class action) under consumer law,” explains Julie Jasson, a CEC legal expert. “The bill that will introduce this action has not yet been adopted. The Directorate for Consumer Protection is responsible for transposing the directive. At the CEC, we welcome the fact that this bill will soon be adopted, as it will be a good instrument for consumers, concerning airlines as well as other companies.”
Still in the hands of MPs, Bill 7650 was the subject of an opinion by the Council of State in June 2023, which the Luxembourg Consumers’ Union (ULC) accused of “destroying the innovative philosophy of the bill.”
The Digital Service Act
As defined in the Digital Services Act, “dark patterns” will also be a focus for the CEC in 2024. “Dark patterns represent all the processes on the internet that aim to lead consumers to buy a product or service,” says Frey. “They can take different forms, like urgent messages, misleading pages, hidden subscriptions, time pressure, etc.” But users still have little understanding of this phenomenon. “Dark patterns represent a problem that is more significant than what is suggested by the complaints we are receiving at the moment. We think that… they don’t know exactly what's behind this not-very-clear terminology. We are working with consumers to provide them with information about the exact concept of a dark pattern, because we are convinced that, once the concept has been properly identified by consumers, we will receive many complaints about it.” , platforms must stop using dark patterns.
Another trend in the CEC’s sights, though still far off, is the management of risks associated with drones. “This is a subject that is part of our preventive concerns at the moment,” says Frey. “In fact, we addressed this issue at our last conference. Even if it isn’t yet a cause for concern in Luxembourg, we remain attentive.”
This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.