Formal investigation opens amid concerns Chinese shopping website is breaching Digital Services Act
The EU has launched formal proceedings against the Chinese shopping website Temu amid concerns it is failing to halt the sale of illegal products online.
A formal investigation was opened on Thursday with the European Commission citing concerns over the platform, which is a cut-price rival to Amazon.
Continue reading...Treasurer says uncovering ‘unfair’ practices also part of proposed surcharge revamp designed to give consumers better deal and cut small business’s costs
The federal government is preparing to ban debit card fees and instruct the consumer watchdog to investigate excessive card costs, as the unpopular system of transaction charges gets set for an overhaul.
The proposed changes would mean consumers no longer pay a fee when using their debit card to buy their morning coffee or make a major retail purchase. Credit card fees would still apply.
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Continue reading...ACCC has accused supermarket giants of breaching consumer laws with alleged ‘price spike’ practices
The competition regulator has taken Coles and Woolworths to court over what is commonly known as “was/is” comparative pricing.
The allegations, which Coles said it would defend and Woolworths said it would review, could result in large fines and unravel the supermarkets’ well-known “Down Down” and “Prices Dropped” promotions, which are at the heart of their marketing campaigns.
Continue reading...Review follows UK competition watchdog’s announcement of ‘urgent review’ into Oasis concert tickets fiasco
Ticketmaster’s ability to raise the price of concert tickets based on demand is being scrutinised by the European Commission, the Guardian has learned, as the UK’s competition watchdog launches an “urgent review” into the Oasis concerts fiasco.
The US-owned ticketing giant has been told it may have breached laws in the UK and Europe for inflating the price of some Oasis tickets from £135 to £350, leaving many fans devastated.
Continue reading...Carriers and airports will have to adhere to customer rights charter setting out ‘reasonable and fair’ conduct – or be penalised
An ombudsman will police how airlines treat customers and enforce a passenger rights charter to ensure timely refunds and possibly cash compensation for delayed and cancelled flights under landmark Australian aviation reforms.
The Albanese government will release its much-anticipated aviation white paper on Monday which will also boost protections for passengers with disabilities who have historically been mistreated by airlines. Carriers will have to adhere to new standards and accommodate a broader range of wheelchairs.
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Continue reading...Sean Letcher believes the average citizen would be horrified by what really goes on behind the call centre doors
Sean Letcher is a shadow of his former self.
Fifteen long years in the debt collection game, spending his days hounding people for unpaid bills and loans, left him shattered.
Continue reading...Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistance
Eurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.
Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer.
Continue reading...Exclusive: £10m needed for regulator charged with developing tools to thwart financial crime and protect consumers
Banks are under pressure to stump up millions of pounds in interim funding for the organisation that polices open banking, with regulators saying the new money is needed to prevent financial crime and protect consumers if things “go wrong”.
Large banks including NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander UK were among more than 40 City firms summoned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last week to discuss a cash injection into Open Banking Limited (OPL), the body that oversees innovation in this area.
Continue reading...Terms and conditions allow firm to raise bills at any time and by an unlimited amount, Which? claims
Virgin Media is facing calls for the telecoms watchdog to urgently investigate the legality of its broadband contracts, under which it can increase bills at any time and by unlimited amounts.
The consumer champion Which? has concluded that Virgin Media’s terms and conditions may amount to unfair contract terms and could be in breach of the Consumer Rights Act. It has written to Ofcom calling on it to intervene.
Continue reading...ACCC warns airline industry is at ‘critical juncture’ with a developing duopoly stunting competition
Australian aviation is at a “critical juncture”, with policy shortcomings allowing for a duopoly marked by higher air fares and poorer service, the consumer watchdog warns, as it loses extra resources to scrutinise the sector.
Qantas Group – including budget carrier Jetstar – and Virgin Australia have carried 90% of domestic passengers over the past two decades, and as many as 94% in April this year, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s quarterly domestic aviation monitoring report released on Monday, the final edition of the three-year task.
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Continue reading...Global companies like Google, Apple and Amazon could have to pay penalties of up to 10% of their global turnover as government gives competition watchdog more power
Major tech firms face the threat of multibillion-pound fines for breaching consumer protection rules under new legislation that will tackle issues including fake online reviews and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel.
The digital markets, competition and consumers bill will empower the UK’s competition watchdog to tackle the “excessive dominance” that a small number of tech firms hold over consumers and businesses.
Continue reading...Whistleblower says he was instructed to tell customers the products were safe to consume, despite lack of testing evidence
A subsidiary of the supplements company Blackmores left a pregnancy multivitamin on shelves for nearly a year despite hundreds of complaints that it was contaminated with mould-like black spots, a former staff member has alleged.
In a complaint to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Peter Ellis alleged FIT-BioCeuticals brushed aside concerns about its products, including pregnancy vitamins and vitamin D drops being used by a children’s hospital, in potential breach of quality regulations.
Continue reading...Reports of fitness watch’s lithium-ion battery overheating leads to warning from US safety commission
The fitness-tracking device maker Fitbit is recalling 1.7m of its Ionic smartwatches after reports of the battery overheating and burning some users.
The company, which was acquired by Google in 2021, had sold about 1m of the model in the US and nearly 700,000 internationally.
Continue reading...Six southern African countries added to list and temporary flight ban in place owing to new Covid-19 variant
The UK government has added six countries to the travel red list after the emergence of a new coronavirus variant. As of midday on Friday, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia are subject to restrictions and a temporary flight ban. Non-UK and Irish residents who have been in any of those countries in the previous 10 days will be refused entry into England. And the move will have an impact on anyone who has a trip planned.
Continue reading...Airline, which even barred some people who sought redress, commits to refunds within five working days
Ryanair has promised to start refunding customers for cancelled flights within five working days, after criticism of its reimbursements policy during the pandemic.
The Dublin-based carrier, which has previously described itself as a “no-refunds airline”, has also announced significant improvements to the way it treats customers whose flights are delayed or cancelled.
Continue reading...Wade can tell you the best pram for a tall parent; Matthew knows which cleaner has superior suction power. But how do you become a respected reviewer on the wild west of the internet?
Once a month, every month, more than 8,000 strangers pay James Hoffmann a total of £16,263 so he can go out and buy coffee machines. Hoffmann, 41, from London, is an author, business owner, coffee connoisseur and, above all, a YouTuber: more than 900,000 people subscribe to his channel, on which he discusses everything to do with beans and brewing. Around a third of Hoffmann’s videos are product reviews: grinders, espresso machines, storage canisters and filters have all been scrutinised by him.
Hoffmann’s monthly £16,000 comes from Patreon, a membership platform that allows fans to pay creators a regular fee. The money is intended to keep him impartial: it enables him to buy machines to review directly – just like you or me – instead of getting them on loan from brands.
Continue reading...Were you the child whose indignant letter yielded a free bar of chocolate? Séamas O’Reilly puts pen to paper to reveal why we are a nation of complainers
The biscuit was only barely covered. If I’d had to guess, I’d have said 30% of its surface had chocolate applied, and that’s being charitable. Certainly more charitable than the manufacturer of the Jaffa Cake in question, who I pictured as God’s perfect miser; a Scrooge-like figure toiling in a candle-lit factory, peering over their bifocals to smear homeopathic levels of chocolate on one sorry corner of my favourite tea snack. I was 10 years old, and had never had a particularly strong sense of myself as a consumer champion, but this biscuit, this disgrace, roused something inside me.
“Dear McVitie’s,” I wrote, addressing the entire company in my missive. “I was shocked and appalled to discover this Jaffa Cake (enclosed) in such a state.” In hindsight, I was savvy enough to moderate my speech to sound adult, but not perhaps worldly enough to consider enclosing the foodstuff itself in plastic before popping it in with my letter. By the time I posted it the following day, I remember already noticing some of its soft greasiness had permeated the envelope, but I reckoned this was probably just the way things were done. Evidently it was, as two weeks later I received a letter apologising for my suboptimal experience, along with an invitation to tour a factory, and two whole boxes of Jaffa Cakes. These, I am happy to report, were perfectly chocolated.
Continue reading...Airlines may have broken law by refusing refunds for flights customers could not legally take
British Airways and Ryanair are being officially investigated over whether they treated customers unfairly during the pandemic by failing to offer them flight refunds.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was looking to see if the two airlines had broken consumer law, and indicated it was on the side of consumers on this issue. It has opened enforcement cases into both companies.
Continue reading...As France is taken off the government’s travel corridor list and new quarantine rules come into play, should UK holidaymakers cancel trips?
The UK government has removed France from its list of travel corridors, leaving hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers scrambling to rearrange their travel plans. A 14-day quarantine on return to the UK from France will come into effect from 4am on Saturday (15 August), leaving a window of little more than 30 hours for travellers to get home if they want to escape the measures.
The UK criteria for removing a country from the list is based on per capita case numbers. If these go above 20 per 100,000, the UK government categorises that country as high-risk. This Wednesday France reached 30.4, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, with significant numbers in recent days: 2,524 new cases were reported on Wednesday, up from 1,397 on Tuesday, and over 2,000 a day last weekend.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of buyers allegedly paid as much as three times the normal bank interest rate when arranging finance through a car dealer
Law firm Maurice Blackburn has launched a class action lawsuit against Westpac on behalf of hundreds of thousands of car buyers who were sold vehicle loans under a deal that allegedly allowed dealers to secretly pocket vast commission payments.
Dealers were able to maximise commissions Westpac and its subsidiary, St George, paid them for selling the loans by charging some customers as much as three times the bank’s going interest rate, it is claimed.
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