I met the European Commissioner for consumer protection yesterday to discuss the growing problem of the European City Guide family of scams (click here).

It was a productive meeting. Commissioner Kyprianou confirmed that he is indeed aware of the scams and takes them very seriously. The Commission is currently reviewing consumer protection legislation to see where it can be strengthened, but this review doesn't currently include business-to-business issues.

Therefore, Mr Kyprianou also agreed to set up a meeting within his department to discuss specifically how EU law for business-to-business transactions might be improved. This will take place as soon as next week and will specifically take the ECG scam into account. I have been given the contact details of the person who will be leading the discussion and will call him next week.

Obviously the above points relate to more long-term actions. But the Commission only has the power to draft new EU laws and to enforce those that already exist - it can't influence judicial or police matters in member states.

However, the Commissioner also reported on recent communication with the Spanish authorities, where the European City Guide is currently based. Apparently, the Valencian consumer protection directorate has received 700 complaints lodged against ECG since 2003. Of these, they have upheld 450, resulting in the contract being cancelled and all fees reimbursed to customers. 150 more are still outstanding. (Presumably, the remaining 100 were dismissed - I don't know.)

The directorate also met with ECG a year ago. They ordered them to revise their contract in order to make it less misleading, and to publish a code of conduct on their website. Both these have now been done, as far as the Commissioner is aware.

The Commissioner confirmed that laws are already in place to protect both consumers and businesses against misleading advertising. He understands that ECG does not ever take its victims to court, and only threatens to do so, but he urges anyone who thinks they have been duped to go to court themselves, where the laws exist to protect them. It is for national jurisdictions and national courts to enforce the European-level laws. (More details here.)

So I would once again urge everyone who's being harassed by ECG to write to their MEP and to ask him or her to write to Commissioner Kyprianou. I am also strengthening my advice to victims of the ECG scam:

• Do not pay.
• Write to the Valencian authorities and make the following points: (1) the contract is still misleading despite the changes; (2) demand action against ECG; (3) demand reimbursement of any sums already paid, if there are any.
• Write to your local MEP and make the following points: (1) the contract is still misleading; (2) the Commission should take cases like this into account in their current review of consumer protection legislation.
• Take legal advice and consider taking the matter to court. EU-wide laws exist and the fact that the scam is based in another EU country will not prevent UK courts from implementing those laws. UK courts have the power to cancel contracts.

I also intend to write to all my MEP colleagues, asking them to treat ECG-related complaints from their constituents very seriously and to consider sending them on to the Commissioner.