Privacy Statement for the European Consumer Centre Network
1. The European Consumer Centre Network
The aim of the network is to: inform European consumers about their rights in cross-border situations; to provide advice and assistance to consumers in resolving complaints with traders based in other Member States of the EU; and to provide advice and assistance in submitting disputes to out of court settlement bodies. The official responsible, the Controller, for the Network is Mr Jesús Orús Báguena, Acting Head of unit B5, Enforcement and Redress, in the Consumer Affair Directorate of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General of the European Commission.
2. What personal information do we collect, for what purpose and through which technical means?
Identification Data
If you are a consumer, European Consumer Centres collect personal data that identifies who you are when you seek assistance in the treatment of a complaint or the settlement of a dispute with a trader. The Centre collects your name, address and contact details what else do the Centres collect? E.g. preferred language, professional occupation, etc.
When a consumer requests information (e.g. a brochure) to be sent to them, the Centre uses the consumer's address/email address or other contact details only to the extent needed to send the data to them. No data is retained or added to a file or database of the Network.
The Centre collects this information subject to Action 9 (in the Annex) of Decision no 20/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 December 2003 establishing a general framework for financing Community actions in support of consumer policy for the years 2004 to 2007 (OJ L5 of 09/01/2004).
Further, the Centre collects this information in order to help the Network to help you in the resolution of your complaint or dispute with the trader in another Member State. Centres enter the details of your case into the European Consumer Centre Network database and then transmit them to the European Consumer Centre in the Member State of the trader. The Officials of the other Centre then uses the information to try and resolve the complaint directly with the trader. The information collected from you about your complaint or dispute, including your name and contact details will be passed to the trader to enable the complaint to be resolved.
If the complaint is not resolved, you may decide to seek settlement of the dispute with an out-of-court settlement body. The European Consumer Centre will help you prepare your application to the out-of-court body. You may submit your application to the out-of-court body yourself, without any further action from the Centre. Alternatively, with your consent, the Centre may, in certain circumstances (e.g. online application form, foreign language), submit the application on your behalf.
If you are an employee of a trader mentioned by the consumer in the complaint, the European Consumer Centre will collect your data -your name, your company name, address and work contact details. The data is only collected where it is relevant to the processing of the complaint and in order to enable the trader to investigate the complaint.
Additional information of a personal nature in relation to the service
This section could list all the possible additional information of a personal nature that the service collects and how it relates to the service offered. As an example, a mailing list service may inquire about the domains of interest of the person in order to send focused newsletters. Do the Centres do this?
Technical information
The personal data is entered into the database of the European Consumer Centre Network by the European Consumer Centres. The database is hosted on servers situated in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and operated under the responsibility of the Joint Research Centre on behalf of the Controller of the Network Service.
3. Who has access to your information and to whom is it disclosed?
As a consumer and as employee of a trader who is the subject of a complaint, access to your personal data is given firstly to the staff of the European Consumer Centre that registered the complaint. It is then made available to the staff of the European Consumer Centre in the Member State of the trader. It is then passed to the trader concerned in order to pursue the complaint. Staff of the European Commission, working for the Controller in DG Health and Consumer Protection and also working for the Joint Research Centre on behalf of the Controller will also have access as part of their management of the Network and database.
4. How do we protect and safeguard your information?
Your information is held in a secure system the operations of which are covered by the European Commission's security decisions and provisions established by the Directorate of Security for this kind of servers and services with access granted only to the staff of the European Consumer Centres and the European Commission and is protected by UserId/Password.
5. How can you verify, modify or delete your information?
As a consumer, you can have access to your personal data through the European Consumer Centre that registered the complaint. As an employee of a trader who is the subject of a complaint, you can have access to your personal data through the European Consumer Centre that first contacted your employer in relation to the complaint. To have this access please contact the relevant European Consumer Centre through the following functional mailbox each Consumer Centre insert own email address when they send out privacy statement
6. How long do we keep your data?
Your personal data will be stored as long as the case remains open for a maximum of 3 years. Once the case has been closed, your personal data will be removed from the system not later than six months after closure.
7. Contact Information
In the first instance you should contact the European Consumer Centre with whom you had your first contact, using the functional mailbox under point 5, if you have questions or complaints about the use of your personal information. If you have further complaints, you should contact the Controller of the Service in DG Health and Consumer Protection at: the following functional e-Mail address: sancoB5@cec.eu.int.
8. Recourse
Complaints, in case of conflict on the processing of personal data, can be addressed to the European Data Protection Supervisor (http://www.edps.eu.int ).
