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