Europe’s New Deal for Consumers, which in particular aims to introduce a system of limited collective recourse across the EU has met with hostility from representatives of both workers and private employers. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) believes the provision should be extended across workers ‘in so far as consumers are also workers’. “Workers and unions should also have the right to lodge collective complaints,” Esther Lynch, ETUC confederal secretary stated. The private sector employers’ federation Business Europe views the ‘New Deal’ as completely futile. For Business Europe the ‘New Deal’ is more a question of ‘a solution seeking a problem’, in light of the fact that European consumers rights are already highly protected.
Briefly, on 11 April, the European Commission presented a package of measures to (i) strengthen online consumer rights by way of more transparent algorithms, (ii) facilitate individual recourse avenues and under certain circumstance to facilitate collective recourse (for certain entities such as consumers’ organizations), and (iii) to introduce stronger sanctions (up to 4% of company annual business revenues) that national authorities can levy when protecting consumers.
Planet Labor, 11 April 20
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