Cross-borders consumer problems?
Turn to the European Consumer Centre!
 

The European Consumer Centre belongs to the European Consumer Centre Network-ECC Net, founded by the European Commission in 27 Member States, other than Iceland and Norway, in collaboration with National Governments. It’s aimed at informing consumers on their rights and assisting them in their cross-border consumer queries; promoting and supporting out of court dispute resolution more quickly and at low cost, than the Court claim procedures.
 

The services provided by the European Consumer Centre:

• INFORMATION

   

  One of the main activities of our centre is to inform consumers about their rights within the internal market, with particular reference to EU legislation and its application at national level. Informing consumers is a priority for ECC Italy: if they know their rights, they can promote and defend their interests. Furthermore, knowing the custom and law in force of other European countries enables them to purchase, live and travel abroad freely, thus feeling at ease.
  
  The European Consumer Centre helps you to know your rights and how to defend your interests.

   

  
   

• ASSISTANCE AND PERSONAL ADVICE

   

  ECC-Net Italy provides individual assistance and advice to consumers: each case received is evaluated on the basis of the existing legislation framework, is handled by experts of the sector and lawyers, who examine the supporting documents and the circumstances reported.  It is a technical-juridical as well as linguistic assistance.

   

  The European Consumer Centre dialogues with the company to explain your reasons and to support your request.

• ASSISTANCE IN CROSS-BORDER COMPLAINTS  

   

  The peculiarity of cross-border complaints is that, when the consumer and the company are based in different countries, consumers wishing to complaint must face a number of difficulties, from technical-juridical to linguistic ones. The ECC makes it easier and facilitates the contact with the company. The consumer will not incur any expense for the legal, linguistic and logistic assistance: ECC will cover all costs, including phone calls, fax and international postal services!
  
  The European Consumer Centre assists you in your cross-border complaint simplifying your relation with the company, favouring the dialogue and exchange of views.

• ADVICE ON OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT PROCEDURES

   

  ECC Italy advises on out-of-court-settlement procedures for consumers in cross-border complaints, in case it is not solved after the first justified request to the company.  One of the priorities of the Centre is in fact to raise the awareness of consumers on the advantages of ADR, which are still not known by the public: lower costs, shorter terms, no need for a lawyer’s assistance - a “friendly” solution that avoids the interruption of the relationship with the company.

   

  The commitment of the ECC is to provide information on national ADR bodies, active also at transnational level, and notified to the Commission on the basis of the Recommendation 98/257/EC and 2001/310/EC.

   

  The European Consumer Centre sends your compliant to ADR bodies and promotes ADR at European level.

• MONITORING AND CO-OPERATION WITHIN THE ECC-NET
  
  ECC- Net constantly monitors and studies the European consumer emerging problems by statistics and in-depth analysis. Activities such as data collection and informa­tion gathering, case recording etc., support the prevention, the political planning, the legislative and repressive intervention from the European and National bod­ies.
  
  Thus an effective collaboration within the Net strengthens actions defending consumers.
  
  The European Consumer Centre works in close co-operation with the EU Commission, the national consumer protection institutions and the other European Consumer Centres, in order to improve consumer protection all over the Internal Market