ConPolicy Newsletter 2023 – 02

Dear Reader,

 

In today's issue ConPolicy informs you about: 

■ News about ConPolicy
■ Consumer policy news
■ Recommended reading
■ Events

We wish you an exciting read!

Kind regards!

Your ConPolicy team

  News about ConPolicy

Final event of the European Good Practice Intiative for Cookie Banner Consent Management on 26.01.2023
Cookie Design Guidelines published

Cookies are often a nuisance for consumers and cookie banners can affect companies' reputation. It doesn't have to be that way. Some companies, consumer protection associations and data protection organizations have joined forces to improve cookie banners better.

The framework for this has been the European Good Practice Initiative for Cookie Banner Consent Management - a multi-stakeholder process involving companies, consumer organizations, digital rights organizations, academics and government agencies. The initiative was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

During 2022, stakeholders worked on guidelines for consumer-friendly cookie banner design. The guidelines were presented and discussed at the final virtual conference of the Good Practice Initiative on Jan. 26, 2023.

Dr. Christiane Rohleder, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, gave an opening statement, and Marcel Ritter (Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG, General Counsel), Ursula Pachl (BEUC, Deputy Director), Rebekka Weiß (bitkom, Head of Trust and Security), Dr. h.c. Marit Hansen (Schleswig-Holstein State Commissioner for Data Protection) and Prof. Dr. Gerald Spindler (Faculty of Law, University of Göttingen) discussed the results and further perspectives of consumer protection and data privacy in the context of digital advertising media. ConPolicy Director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun facilitated the event.

At the time of publication, the Cookie Design Guidelines are supported by three NGOs (Access Now, BEUC, and Privacy International), two companies (CookieFirst and Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG), one government institution (German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection - BMUV), and one representative of academia (Prof. Dr. Max von Grafenstein, Einstein Center Digital Future - ECDF). Further supporters are welcome and are invited to indicate their intention to implement the Guidelines to the BMUV by e-mail (vii2@bmuv.bund.de).

The Guidelines can be found here on the BMUV website (Guidelines in English, accompanying text in German), and here on ConPolicy’s website.

A short insightful video is here.

More information about the project can be found here.

Study to identify initiatives to provide local advice to consumers
New ConPolicy publication for the European Commission

In November 2020, the European Commission launched the New Consumer Agenda including the key priority area “Addressing specific consumer needs”, where special attention is given to vulnerable consumers. To achieve this goal, the European Commission is seeking to support local consumer advice initiatives for those who lack access to online or central support. In this context, a study was commissioned to examine various innovative local consumer advice initiatives throughout the EU, and to pinpoint effective practices that can be shared among Member States and stakeholders.

The study was implemented by VVA and ConPolicy. Methodologically it was based on desk research, a consumer survey and stakeholder consultation activities, namely an online survey and in-depth interviews. While the consumer survey results helped to understand the type of advice needed in communities, the consultation with initiative providers revealed which local initiatives are currently available. Overall, 156 local advice initiatives were identified from which 35 fact sheets as examples of successful and innovative local initiatives were created. This information was also used to identify effective practices that can aid consumer organizations, NGOs, and other relevant stakeholders to expand their reach and enhance consumer comprehension of the information and advice provided to them.

Finally, the study identified four main success factors for local advice activities across the EU:

  1. Initiatives tailored to specific needs and problems encountered by the targeted consumer group
  2. Collaboration and partnerships with other local actors
  3. Advice given at the relevant moment (place and time) in a proactive manner
  4. Focus on online advice development

The study may be found here.

More information in the project may be found here.

  Consumer policy news

Consumer protection
Website screening: Dark patterns to manipulate consumer choice found in many online shops

Together with national consumer protection authorities of 23 Member States, Norway and Iceland (CPC Network), the European Commission (EC) published… Read more

Consumer protection
Volume of complaints about phone number misuse remains elevated

The German Federal Network Agency (dena) published current figures on the volume of complaints regarding the misuse of phone numbers today. For the… Read more

Consumer protection
Considerable deficiencies in the implementation of the button for online cancellations

Today, the Federation of German Consumer Associations (vzbv) presented its current research on the issue of online cancellations and the legally… Read more

Consumer behavior
28 percent of indebted consumers had outstanding debts from online retailers

Today, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) published new figures on indebtedness among German consumers for the year of 2021. During the… Read more

  Recommended reading

Park, T. et al.
How to build a Net Zero society – Using behavioural insights to decarbonise home, energy, transport, food, and material consumption

Tackling climate change is not only a moral and legal obligation in the UK, but is also the growth opportunity of the 21st century, and is backed by… Read more

Müller, A.
Data analytics and artificial intelligence in the power distribution network

Data analyses and artificial intelligence (AI) in the power grid can not only provide great added value for grid operators and the overall system, but… Read more

CI
Digital finance – The consumer experience

Digital financial services are enabling more consumers to access financial services and are fundamentally changing the way in which consumers engage… Read more

Garrett, E. et al.
Current loot box warnings are ineffective for informing consumers

Loot boxes – a form of in-game purchase within video games (i.e. 'microtransactions') – have received research attention due to their similarities… Read more

ConPolicy GmbH - Institute for Consumer Policy
Neue Grünstrasse 17 / 10179 Berlin
info@conpolicy.de
www.conpolicy.de

Register Court: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg / Reg. No.: HRB 151732 B
Director: Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun

 
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