AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

CONSUMER PROTECTION ANTITRUST AUTHORITY–EU PROJECT RESUMES IN HIGH SCHOOLS AND ITALIAN INSTITUTES. 5,000 SCHOOLS AND 2.5 MILLION STUDENTS INVOLVED

Non-delivery of product; failed reimbursement of the price paid at the time of an order online in the face of failed delivery of the goods ordered; non-recognition of the right of withdrawal and of the right to a guarantee; lack of conformity between the features that are listed on the site and the product that a consumer receives. These are the main problems that emerge in purchases that Italian consumers make on the web and that the Antitrust Authority is facing in cases of abuse and unfair trade practices that are being reported by an ever increasing number of e-buyers.

For this reason, in order to better inform all citizens about the new safeguards that can be accessed thanks to European regulation, the External Relations Department of the Italian Antitrust Authority, in collaboration with the EU Commission and the Ministry of Education, launched an awareness campaign on these issues in Italian high schools that started in April 2015 and has just resumed in high schools and institutes. Lessons are planned to be given throughout the whole Italian territory in which information will be given about guarantees, specific situations and how to report abuse.

Insofar as electronic commerce is concerned, students are given useful advice to avoid problems: a test of the characteristics of the websites from where purchases are made; the extent to which information blogs are authentic; methods of payment (preferably to be done at the time of shipment of the goods and not before); the existence or otherwise of references on the online seller and on the real possibility of exercising the right of withdrawal and the right to guarantees.

The campaign, illustrated by means of various informative slides and summarized in a spot aired on Rai channels, both available on www.agcm.it/stampa/progetto-scuola.html, is also focused on a set of guidelines developed to inform and protect better all consumers, starting from the younger ones who use smartphones and mobile devices to navigate and buy products and services.

In short, these are the developments and the highlights of the new European regulation, the focus of the meetings that the Italian Antitrust Authority is organizing: a stop to hidden charges and fees on the internet; greater price transparency; a ban on pre-ticked boxes on websites; more days (14) to be able to change one’s mind about online purchases; more refund rights, extended to 14 days from the time of withdrawal; the introduction of a standard withdrawal form for the EU as a whole; the elimination of surcharges for the use of credit cards and telephone helplines; clearer information on which party is to meet costs incurred in the return of goods.

The first lessons in the project were held successfully in several schools in Rome, Naples and Palermo which were attended by hundreds of students. The series of meetings later continued in institutes in Bari, Florence, Bologna, Turin, Milan, Vicenza, Trento and Cagliari and will also reach Calabria and Basilicata.

The Ministry of Education has sent information material on the campaign Consumer Rights (available on http://www.agcm.it/stampa/progetto-scuola.html) to 5,000 Level II secondary schools (of which 2,590 are state schools and 2,410 are non-state schools), reaching about 2.5 million students.

Rome, 20 November 2015