Consumer Summit part 1: Introduction

The European Consumer Summit took place in Brussels on April 1^st and 2^nd. The purpose of the summit was to review the challenges and opportunities of the digital environment. The outcome of the discussions would complete our view on these challenges and opportunities and would form the future policy making, create synergies between advocates and stakeholders, and alert and inform consumers themselves about possible issues of concern.

It was the first summit on this topic, so it was deemed quite important. Attendees included members of all the organisations that are involded in consumer protection (European Consumer Centres, European Consumer Consultative Groups, Consumer Policy Networks, Consumer Protection Committees, Consumer Enforcement Networks, various non-government organisations), government officials, business representatives, press and media, consumers, and members of the European Commission including Commissioner Ms. Meglena Kuneva.

I am not a member of any of the above mentioned organisations, so you might wonder how I ended on the summit. You won't believe it if I tell you, but I'll tell you anyway. It's thanks to my love for ABBA music and Mamma Mia! the musical. Don't laugh, it's true. No, really, totally true! I see you still don't believe me, so I think it deserves further explanation.

In the end of 2008, I ordered the CDs of the Dutch and Swedish cast recording of Mamma Mia! the musical from an internet shop in Denmark. The CDs haven't arrived after a month (which was promised by the vendor), not even after two months (which was later promised by the vendor); in fact, they have never arrived. When I asked the vendor to solve the problem or give me my money back (after all, the terms of business clearly specified that the vendor was responsible for delivery), I haven't even received a reply. Dispute of the credit card transaction in my bank was denied without giving me a reason, so I contacted the European Consumer Centre of the Czech Republic.

A European Consumer Centre operates in each EU country, in Norway, and in Iceland. The centres help consumers from EU/Norway/Iceland in cross-border disputes with businesses. The problem with goods that never arrives is a typical case they can help with; in cooperation with their Danish colleagues, the European Consumer Centre of the Czech Republic was able to persuade the the vendor give me my money back.

That could have easily been the end of the story - but it wasn't. In fact, it was only the beginning. As I already mentioned, consumers were supposed to attend the Summit, so the European Commission was looking for a few consumers that the Centres helped - and this is where I came in. I was recommended to the Commission by the European Consumer Centre of the Czech Republic and the Commission later invited me along with about fifteen more consumers from all over the EU.

So you see? If I weren't an ABBA and Mamma Mia! fan, I would not have wanted to order the Dutch and Swedish cast recordings (because this isn't a typical language that Czech people usually listen to), thus I would not have had a dispute with the Danish shop, and I would not have been invited to the Summit!

I travelled to Brussels in the afternoon of Tuesday 31st March. My flight was with Brussels Airlines in a small jet for about a hundred people - Avro RJ85. You can see the plane, as well as a part of the Bohemian scenery, on the following pictures.

My plane took off from Ruzyně airport at 17:15 and landed at about 18:30. Then I took a taxi to my hotel - New Hotel Charlemagne, located very close to the European Quarter.

The room was nice and tidy - you can see it on the next few pictures.

The view from the room was what you'd expect from a hotel in the centre of a city - just uninteresting buildings and more uninteresting buildings - but I didn't really care because I only needed the room for sleep.

The only issue (that was really a non-issue, but I didn't know at that time) was that I didn't quite find out how to turn on the lights in the room and electricity in general. The usual light switches didn't seem to work, so I had to ask the front desk. They explained that I need to put the room card into a special socket on the wall; then the electricity for the room would be turned on. And indeed it worked - but I must say I would have not figured that out myself. I do understand that some people leave lights turned on when they leave their room, but I can't comprehend why we need a high-tech solution for that instead of educating those people...