German Consumer Association
| Deutscher Konsumentenbund e. V. | |
|---|---|
| purpose | Representation of interests / consumer protection |
| Chair: | Iwona Szczeblewski |
| Establishment date: | 2007 |
| Number of members: | 9,000 (including indirect members, as of August 2014) |
| Seat : | Rossdorf |
| Website: | www.konsumentenbund.de |
The German Consumer Federation is a non-profit , in the legal form of a registered association organized advocacy and a consumer protection institution based in Roßdorf. The main focus of the association's activities is in Hesse . The consumer association is entered in the lobby register of the European Commission as a representative of consumer interests. It operates non-commercial consumer advice and information and is a qualified institution within the meaning of the Injunction Law .
The German Consumer Association is one of the 78 selected associations in Germany that are allowed to carry out a model declaratory action .
Content orientation
According to its guiding principle, the association favors market-based problem solutions, with the exception of the supply of “drugs, medical products and health services”, which require special supervision. The association also calls for “maximum transparency” from the state as soon as it “appears as a provider on the market” and advocates free trade , but criticizes “irresponsible working conditions ”, which it considers to be a problematic competitive factor that must be countered with transparency and information.
The German Consumer Association prefers the term “consumer” to the term “consumer” in its language regulation. He advocates strengthening antitrust supervision.
History and structure
The association, which was founded in 2007, has more than 9,000 members (as of August 2014), most of them from Hessen. The German Consumer Association emerged from various small private initiatives and associations that were initially loosely organized in the German Consumer Association. A predecessor organization is the Central Office for Drug Safety and Consumer Protection. V. As the largest member association in 2010, it took over the business of the working group on a permanent basis and under its own responsibility and has been known as the Deutscher Konsumentenbund since 2010 in coordination with the other members of the working group.
The association is recognized as a non-profit organization and, according to its own information, does not receive any donations from commercial enterprises or public funds, but is financed from private donations and membership fees as well as through voluntary work. The Consumer Federation attaches great importance to the fact that he no officials has and (apart from a reimbursement of travel expenses) is not a board member for his work receives money.
The statutes of the association know some peculiarities and z. B. forbids categorically secret ballots and secret elections in order to strengthen the transparency in the association. In addition, the statutes contain a special reference to the European Union. In § 2 II of the statutes it says: “The association values the achievements of European unification including the internal market and is committed to them and to the creation of a common area of freedom, security and justice. He feels particularly committed to supporting consumers in cases with an intra-Community connection. The association will support the consumer protection work of the European institutions, especially the European Commission, to the best of its ability. "
In addition to the general assembly, the association has a board of directors in which the branches are represented. Since 2010 there has been a subdivision of the consumer association in the states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland with the Regional Association South. The establishment of a regional association in Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen is currently (July 2011) in progress.
In 2014, several larger associations joined the consumer association, which increased the number of members to 9,000, with the association having so-called indirect members. The Konsumentenbund maintains close relationships with the GWUP , which is also based in Hesse .
In order to finance the association, it is known that in the past it received project-related grants from the public sector. The association explains that its income came from free gifts, membership fees and donations.
Main areas of activity
The consumer association represents the interests of the “non-commercial demand side” at expert hearings of the state government and the state cartel authority of Hesse, as well as at specialist events. In addition, the association gives its opinion to political decision-makers - including the European Commission - on various issues relevant to consumer protection.
In 2010, the association criticized the state government's handling of real names in transfer texts from the state treasury in the context of legal aid and the processing of transfers from private individuals to prisoners in the penal system of the state of Hesse. The administrative practice was then changed.
The association creates opinions on consumer protection issues and publishes them on its website.
In 2012 and 2013, the consumer association issued numerous warnings in a wide variety of areas. The association also conducts legal proceedings against drug and esoteric providers .
Fair water working group
The Konsumentenbund maintains the fair water working group , in which member organizations, citizens' initiatives and private individuals have organized themselves. The association provides the members with technical infrastructure and organizes meetings and exchanges of experience between the working group members. The working group members receive information on current case law and background information, can coordinate their actions and organize joint events.
The working group deals with the question of how the position of consumers in (communal) monopoly markets can be strengthened. This includes the association in particular the water supply and disposal, but also other facilities with connection and use compulsory and supply structures with market-dominating companies. In particular, the association criticizes the weak supervisory structures in the area of municipal taxes and most recently advocated more transparency in the utility industry at government hearings in May 2011.
It is true that the German Consumer Association postulates a “basic consumer right to competition” in its leitmotif , but the association does not explicitly make a statement in favor of private or public-law supply when it comes to questions of supply infrastructure. The association publicly refers to the fact that both the most expensive and the cheapest supplier in Hesse are structured under public law. According to the association, the amount of the fee is “probably not a question of the form of organization, but of the supervisory structure and transparency”. However, if a supply is operated under public law and the supplier works with the means of connection and use compulsory , the association demands “maximum transparency” and strict abuse control.
In this context, the association also criticizes various aspects of the (Hessian) municipal tax law , such as the so-called inclusion of unreduced creative contributions or the obligation of municipal companies to generate a return and transfer it to the municipality resulting from the Hessian municipal code and the case law of the Hessian Administrative Court. The association also advocates the abolition of the concession fee and demands compensation for the costs of providing extinguishing water in the municipality's fee budgets.
Tests, product warnings and RAPEX notifications
As part of the information on the quality and value of consumer goods, regularly publishes product warnings and RAPEX notifications on its website that are related to the Federal Republic of Germany . The German Consumer Association is a contractual partner of the European Commission for the translation and publication of RAPEX notifications in German. In addition, the association occasionally publishes product tests.
Since 2008 the association has been publishing tips and instructions for consumers who have fallen into so-called subscription traps . Including sample letters for subscription trap victims since 2009. The sample letters can be used free of charge. The association also offers the opportunity to report new subscription traps and make detailed complaints via websites. The German Consumer Association also publishes information material on the subject of air passenger rights.
Since 2013, the consumer association has also been disseminating information on the topics of homeopathy and alternative medicine , which deal very critically with both. The texts were partly created in collaboration with the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP) . The Konsumentenbund also links to the content of the GWUP and its magazine Der Skeptiker .
Promotion of children and youth projects
The association supports projects in the field of child and youth work that serve to impart consumer skills to children and young people through financial donations. Funding went, for example, to projects of the women's refuge in the Kassel district and a school farm project at the Sababurg zoo .
Relationship to other institutions
The consumer association is not associated with the consumer centers and occasionally criticizes certain aspects of the activities of the consumer centers and the BEUC .
The consumer association is critical of the Lebensmittelklarheit.de website , which is financed with public funds and operated by the Hessen consumer center. According to the association, it is unclear who actually decides which products are named there, who selects these people and to whom they have to account. This is not transparent. The EU consumer protection organization BEUC was publicly criticized by the consumer association for its stance on the legislative procedure for the full harmonization of consumer goods sales law of the EU Commission. For German consumers in particular, the planned new rules of the EU Commission are a big step forward and the criticism of the BEUC is disproportionate from a national perspective.
In 2013 the Konsumentenbund sponsored the negative award Das Goldene Brett , after the prize had been sponsored by the Vienna Association for Consumer Information in the previous year .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Imprint - Deutscher Konsumentenbund eV Accessed on November 28, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Lobby Register of the EU Commission, No. 15615763186-36 ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 30, 2011.
- ↑ a b c d Statutes of the Federal Association . ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. German Consumer Association, as of January 30, 2014, accessed on June 26, 2016.
- ^ Federal Office of Justice: List of qualified institutions in accordance with Section 4 of the Injunctive Action Act (UKlaG). Retrieved June 6, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Leitmotiv des Deutschen Konsumentenbund ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ↑ a b c Hofgeismar talks on the common goods economy: The public water sector in Germany - inefficient and in need of reform ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Presentation documents (PDF), accessed July 30, 2011
- ↑ a b c Self-presentation of the association ( memento of the original from October 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Expert hearing : State cartel authority publishes expert reports ( memento of the original from July 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 30, 2011
- ↑ Lectures of the event Water Prices and Charges May 9, 2011 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the state cartel authority of the state of Hesse (list of links on the right-hand side of the screen, ZIP file)
- ↑ Consultation on the future European Union (EU) - United States of America (US) international agreement on personal data protection and information sharing for law enforcement purposes (PDF; 85 kB), accessed on July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Central AKS takes a position on personal data protection in advisory and legal aid in Hesse ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Central AKS is the predecessor organization of the German Consumer Association), accessed on July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Frank Weiß: Warning from the German Consumer Association RatgeberRecht.eu / law firm Weiß & Partner, accessed on May 17, 2013
- ^ Warning ticker , accessed on May 17, 2013
- ↑ Fair Water Working Group ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the association's website, accessed on July 30, 2011
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Reporting system for subscription traps
- ↑ Collection of information on air passenger rights ( memento of the original from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 30, 2011.
- ↑ [1] , Deutschland Today: Support for child and youth work in Sababurg Zoo, accessed on April 21, 2013.
- ↑ Konsumentenbund criticizes “pillory portal” of the consumer center ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Konsumentenbund.de, accessed July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Uniform EU rules for consumer protection: Brussels Consumer Protection Association (BEUC) overlooks opportunities ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 30, 2011.
- ^ Website of the Golden Board Award , accessed on November 24, 2013.
