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Image header Agence Europe
Europe Daily Bulletin No. 9071
Contents Publication in full By article 27 / 43
GENERAL NEWS / (eu) eu/information society

BEUC campaigns to defend digital consumers' rights

Brussels, 18/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - BEUC, the European Consumers' Organisation, launched a campaign last week under the auspices of Zuzana Roithova (Czech EPP-ED MEP) to defend digital consumers' rights. In a 'Declaration of Consumers' Digital Rights,' BEUC lists rights it wants enshrined in EU law and properly enforced, namely the right to choice, knowledge and cultural diversity; the right to the principle of 'technical neutrality'; the right to benefit form technological innovations without abusive restrictions; the right to interoperability of content and devices; the right to the protection of privacy; an the right not to be criminalised. 'The industry insists on 'informing,' or rather 'misinforming' consumers on what they cannot do in the digital world. We believe it is high time to guarantee consumers certain basic rights in the digital world and to tell them what they can do with their digital hardware and content,' explained BEUC Director Jim Murray. To demonstrate the problems faced by consumers, BEUC has published the results of two pan-European surveys on cultural diversity online and on interoperability between online music stores (see http://www.consumersdigitalrights.org ).

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