European Consumer Centres warn about coronavirus scams

By: Nina Hoppmann
Created: 11 May 2020 - 12:05
Updated: 11 May 2020 - 12:05

European Consumer Centres (ECCs) are EU co-funded bodies providing advice and assistance to EU citizens about their consumer rights in cross-border shopping in the Single Market. In this time of crisis, they have included coronavirus-related advice in their consultancy. The ECCs are warning consumers about fraudulent medicines, fake protective masks and other coronavirus scams. They also regularly inform national consumer authorities and the Commission on the scams they identify. 

Consumers should be cautious if traders in their marketing campaign or offer:

  • Use language or images in their marketing which explicitly or implicitly suggest that a product is able to prevent or cure COVID-19 infection.
  • Make reference to self-declared doctors, health professionals, experts or other unofficial sources stating that a product is able to prevent or cure an infection with the new virus.
  • Refer by name or logo to government authorities, official experts or international institutions which have allegedly endorsed the protective or curative claims without providing hyperlinks or references to official documents.
  • Use scarcity claims such as “only available today”, “sell out fast” or similar.
  • Inform about market conditions such as “lowest price on the market”, “only product that can cure COVID-19 infections” or similar.
  • Use prices that are well above the normal price for similar products due to the fact that they would allegedly prevent or cure COVID-19 infection.

Source: Scams related to COVID-19


Replies
Nina Hoppmann
28 May 2020
Removing misleading ads

To protect consumers, the European Commission has coordinated a screening (‘sweep') of websites, with the aim of finding out where consumers in the EU are being subjected to content promoting false claims or scam products in the context of the coronavirus. The results show: platforms have removed or blocked millions of misleading advertisements or product listings. For example, Google has blocked or removed over 80 million coronavirus-related ads (globally), eBay has blocked or removed more than 17 million listings from its global marketplace that violate EU consumer rules; and Amazon observed a 77% decrease in the weekly number of new product listings with coronavirus-related claims compared to March.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_938 

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