The Unique InfoCons Consumer Protection App – Empowering Consumers Worldwide !
Consumer protection safeguards buyers of goods and services from unfair business practices through laws, regulations, and agencies. This includes ensuring access to accurate information, protecting against fraud and deception, and providing redress for consumer rights violations. Key aspects involve government regulation, businesses acting fairly, consumer education, and the work of consumer associations and protection agencies.
Key functions of consumer protection
- Safeguarding against unfair practices:
It protects consumers from fraudulent, deceptive, or unfair business behaviors like misleading advertising or hidden charges.
- Ensuring product/service quality:
It pushes for businesses to guarantee the quality of their products and services.
- Providing access to information:
It ensures consumers can access clear and accurate information to make informed decisions, such as having clear contractual terms.
- Offering redress:
It provides mechanisms for consumers to seek help and compensation when their rights have been violated.
Who is involved
- Government: Creates and enforces consumer protection laws, regulations, and policies.
- Businesses: Are expected to behave ethically and fairly, and are held accountable for adhering to consumer protection laws.
- Consumers: Are expected to be informed about their rights and to proactively assert them.
- Consumer associations: Play a role in raising awareness and representing consumer interests.
- Consumer protection agencies: Act as government bodies that implement and enforce consumer protection laws. For example, the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) in Romania handles consumer complaints.
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How it works in practice
- Legal protection:
Laws are established to prevent unfair practices and provide consumers with legal recourse.
- Government enforcement:
Agencies like the ANPC in Romania enforce these laws and can take action against businesses that violate them.
- Cross-border cooperation:
With the rise of e-commerce, there is a growing need for international cooperation on consumer protection, as highlighted by the European Commission and the European Consumer Centre Network.
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The European InfoCons App – Your Trusted Partner for Consumer Protection
The InfoCons App is a unique, free tool available in 33 languages: Romanian , English , Ukrainian , Turkish , French , Hungarian , Greek , German , Spanish , Italian , Albanian , Catalan , Bulgarian , Croatian , Czech , Danish , Estonian , Finnish , Icelandic , Irish , Latvian , Macedonian , Faroese , Greenlandic , Luxembourgish , Serbian , Dutch , Norwegian , Polish , Portuguese , Russian , Slovak , Swedish , the official languages of the European Union, and the languages of minority communities within the EU.
It empowers consumers globally by providing quick access to essential consumer protection resources and emergency services.
The app can be downloaded from the following stores : App Store, Google Play, and App Gallery. If you encounter any issues during your travels within the European Union, InfoCons provides all consumers with the SOS section within the European InfoCons App .
With just a simple click, consumers have access to all international emergency numbers. The SOS section of the European InfoCons App can also be used offline, allowing emergency numbers to be called directly from the app without an internet connection.
European consumers can also use the European InfoCons App to check all food and non-food product alerts in the country they are in! For food safety alerts, which are updated daily, the level of risk is indicated as low, undetermined, or serious.
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In the Alerts section of the app, consumers can also find out which products have been identified by the European alert system as counterfeit. Through the European InfoCons App , consumers have direct and transparent access to non-food product alerts, updated daily with details such as:
- Product name;
- Country affected;
- Risk level;
- Product origin;
- Date when the alert goes into effect;
- Image of the product subject to the alert.
Through the SOS section of the European InfoCons App , authorities in the country where the consumer is located can be contacted, including consumer protection agencies, police, firefighters, ambulance services, and more.
Using the European InfoCons App , consumers can access a wide range of other useful information in the selected language, including:
- Scanning product barcodes to learn about ingredients , the number and type of food additives , allergens , and the amount of sugar , salt , and calories ;
- Scanning QR codes on energy labels of appliances and other electronic devices ;
- Customizing the app for those with certain health issues and special dietary needs by setting limits for salt, sugar, allergens, and specific types and numbers of additives ;
- A terminology dictionary in consumer protection , environment, banking and finance, labor, insurance, energy, etc.;
- 3 free personalized QR codes through which the scanning traffic of the generated QR codes can be monitored and more.