What about consumer rights in other european countries?

Arg

As some of you may or may not know, you can do online shopping in the rest of the EU as though it were UK.Some countries have lower VAT or products which you can't get here.
What I'm trying to find out is what laws or EU directives there are to help if there is a problem.For example here we have the Sale of Goods Act,Supply of Goods and Services Act or distance selling regulations

Does anyone know what the equivalents are in the main european countries?

Hintza

I'm afraid these laws are secret..........;)

tbw

I haven't a clue - but, when I recently had problems with a bedding order placed in Majorca, I contacted Consumer Direct. They told me to check with the EU contract centre and gave me a phone number (0845 6040503). As it happened I didn't need the number as I managed to argue on my own and got the Spanish lot to back down.

The number might be worth calling though - they should be able to give you some sensible info.

hazey31

They are practically non-existent here in Belgium.

HTH.

Itismehonest

Hi
I can't post the link (newbie - so closest I can give you is ukecc.net for the UK site) but the European Consumer Centre is the pan-European "Trading Standards".

mo786uk

Generally spekaing if you buy from France you are going to get the rights offered to French citizens.

There as been some debate about whether you should get British rights but I thin kit is harsh to make a french company comply with british laws if a consuemr wnats to roder fro mthe,.

The distance selling regulations will apply to france as it is EU legislaiton but it wont be exactly the same a the UK - will most likely have a 7 day coolign off period like the uk as that was the crux of the legislaiton i believe.

No idea what their equivalent of the SOGA etc would be though.

You buy at your own risk.

unholyangel

mo786uk wrote: »

Generally spekaing if you buy from France you are going to get the rights offered to French citizens.

There as been some debate about whether you should get British rights but I thin kit is harsh to make a french company comply with british laws if a consuemr wnats to roder fro mthe,.

The distance selling regulations will apply to france as it is EU legislaiton but it wont be exactly the same a the UK - will most likely have a 7 day coolign off period like the uk as that was the crux of the legislaiton i believe.

No idea what their equivalent of the SOGA etc would be though.

You buy at your own risk.

Actually the DSR's are regulations. Meaning that member states of the EU are not allowed to interpret it, it has to be applied with the same definitions.

Directives are different. They basically outline a "result" and leave it up to the member states on how to implement it (our SoGA is better than the EU Directive apparently).

Good page for more info:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/rights/gen_rights_en.htm

mo786uk

You have it the wrong way around.

The DSR came from a Directive and were implemented as Regulations in the UK. So we will have had some freedom but the 7 day bit was probably set in stone.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31997L0007:EN:NOT



The DSRs will probably be repealed in a few years time because the Consumer Rights Directive will be implemented and I udnerstand the Government are planning a consolidation of various UK consumer laws.

unholyangel

I'm not 100% sure if the DSR's were due to a directive, I know i've researched a few consumer laws recently and one of them was due to regulations.

My apologies though, my short term memory isnt the best. Although I can remember numbers fine and tiny details from 10 years ago! Go figure.

I'll try check my history (if i havent deleted it) after work and see if i can find out what one i should've been referring too

System

Not forgetting that the UK is one of the few countries to slavishly enact every bit of garbage that comes out of Brussels where other countries just cherry pick with impunity.

Arg

I'll have a look at some of those places and see what I can find.