Sunday 14 February 2010

Online consumer education

The European Commission (DG Sanco) financed Dolceta - a website for online consumer education. This website is available to consumers in all Member States in their own languages. The website is designed to enhance public access to information about consumer issues on the internal market. It will be updated in order to stay accurate. It is not to be seen as a legal advice but even as information of general nature it should enable the consumers better understanding of the European Consumer Law. Recently (in January 2010) two new modules have been opened at the website.

It contains separate modules on:
  • consumer rights (regarding sales contract, price labelling, distance selling, advertising, safety of products and services, settling disputes, the Single Market, and various other particular issues, e.g. door-to-door sales, privacy laws, etc.), f
  • inancial services (giving advice on managing a family budget, running a bank account, means of payment, consumer credit, mortgages, savings&investments),
  • product safety (with general chapter on product safety as well as a chapter advising consumers how to keep safe at home, on the road and at work), sustainable consumption (food and drink, personal care products, etc.),
  • services of general interest (energy, telecommunications, transport, postal services, water services), and
  • so called 'teacher corner'. The teacher corner offers educators a variety of tools to help them find out more about Consumer Education, and assist them in delivering fun and informative lessons for different age groups across a broad range of settings. There is a vast selection of lesson plans and resources to address available in this corner.
The website looks more and more promising and let us hope that works on it will not be terminated.