What has changed?

The European Union in order to strengthen the struggle against the “scams and frauds” has introduced new rules to protect consumers on the Internet (New Deal for Customers). They came into force on Tuesday, January 7, reported on the website of the European Commission. Companies operating in the EU may be subject to serious sanctions for their violation, according to dw.com.

Failure to follow these rules “could cost the company large fines in the amount of not less than 4 per cent of annual turnover”, stated the European Commissioner for justice, Didier Reynders. According to the Deputy Chairman of the Commission of Faith Yurova, “the new rules will give consumers in the digital world such a high defense, which they rightfully deserve.” Yurov called on the EU to adopt new rules “without delay.” It set aside a period of up to two years.

Among other things, the new rules prohibit sellers to use bots to purchase tickets to concerts or sporting events for the purpose of resale at an inflated price. It is also forbidden to place on the sites of counterfeit consumer reviews, and in the case of indicating the price reduction is supposed to indicate which was the price of a product or service 30 days before.

In may 2018 came into force the norms of the General EU data protection (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR), giving Internet users the right to know what data is stored about them online and how they are used. Until that time, all EU States operated national norms, which were based on the General orientations of the EU, developed in 1995, but differed significantly from country to country.