15:00 - 16:00

Consumers

The European consumer agenda - the strategic vision for EU consumer policy adopted in April 2012: reinforces consumer safety: for goods, services and food, strengthening the regulatory framework and making market surveillance more efficient

• enhances knowledge: to cope with the increasing complexity of markets, where consumers need the right tools and information to understand everything from the cost of consumer credit to finding how to complain

• improves enforcement and securing redress, without which rights cannot exist

• aligns policy to societal change and making it relevant to daily life: to adapt consumer law to the digital age and tackle the problems consumers face online; to factor in the needs of vulnerable consumers; to make sustainable choices easy.

Objectives safeguard consumer rights through legislation, including help to resolve disputes with traders fast and efficiently (e.g. through alternative dispute resolution and European consumer centres)

• ensure consumer rights keep pace with economic and social change – especially in the digital area, energy, and financial services

• guarantee the safety of products on the single market

• help consumers make choices based on clear, accurate and consistent information, e.g. when shopping online

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