'Not enough protection, access to redress for online buyers' - Mizzi

Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi (S&D) has strongly set out the case with the S&D Members in the "Digital Agenda" working group that the Digital Single market, whilst enhancing opportunities for innovation, growth and jobs in the digital economy, needs to also provide consumers with efficient protection and quick, affordable access to redress mechanism.

"The Digital revolution provides a limitless array of opportunities, not only for our citizens and consumers but also for our business and Member States. However the digital technologies are evolving at such a rapid speed that often new rules end up obsolete and the consumer unprotected from dishonest traders selling goods and services online," said Mizzi.

The Digital Agenda working Group of which Mizzi is a member was created by a select group of S&D MEP's which are tasked with coordinating the work of the Socialist Group in order to create a truly Digital Single Europe. The meeting featured contributions from S&D MEPs on the ongoing Parliament report in response to the European Commission recent Digital Single Market strategy.

According to Mizzi, Europe has the tools in place to protect consumers but lacks proper enforcement, coordination and better information to consumers. Furthermore, she believes that quality and access to the existing redress mechanisms need to be improved, which are very often not in place and if available, the consumer is completely unaware of their existence.

"We need to understand that our society and Europe's competitiveness strongly depend on how rapidly Europe can adapt to the ongoing technological developments but in order to do that we need to create a trustworthy digital single market inside the EU. We need to create a digital environment that would strengthen consumer trust by providing effective and efficient protection and redress mechanism."

Mizzi continued, "The EU rules forbid any form of discrimination on the basis of nationality and place of residence, but yet this is still the case not only for the Maltese consumers but for any consumer that tends to shop online from a different country. This can only be acceptable if there is an ‘objective reason’ for a refused transaction.

"Therefore, the Digital single Market needs to guarantee trust, choice and protection of our citizens, because without the appropriate safeguards, the scope of the digital single market will be hugely undermined.