THERE IS a "black hole" for consumers who want to take a joint case against a service provider, according to the EU commissioner for consumer affairs, Meglena Kuneva.
She said yesterday that consumers who were victims of overcharging, misleading advertising or outright scams had a right to compensation, but there were many obstacles to this.
"There are black holes in our redress system that is leaving consumers with nowhere to go. The present situation is clearly unsatisfactory." She said the European Commission was looking for the public's views on how best to settle consumer complaints involving a large number of people.
Almost two-thirds of Irish consumers would be more willing to go to court to settle a complaint if they could join together with others, according to research carried out by the Commission.
Ms Kuneva said consumers could always go to court to obtain individual redress and then mass claims could be resolved with a large number of individual claims. However, commission studies showed that consumers faced substantial barriers such as legal fees that may be higher than the compensation received.
Ireland is one of 13 EU states with no collective redress mechanism for damages.
The commission launched an online public consultation yesterday to get the public's views.Comments can be submitted by email to sanco-consumer-collective-redress@ec.europa.eu
