Parliament adopts report to tackle European City Guide scams

I was delighted this morning when the Parliament's Petitions Committee unanimously adopted a report by Maltese Christian Democrat, Simon Busuttil, on the European City Guide and other misleading business directories, a subject on which I have blogged on before.

I have been the Shadow spokesman for the Socialist group on this report. Simon has done an excellent job, and the report adopted by committee is a good one. In particular, the report calls on the European Commission to ensure that all countries in the EU are implementing and enforcing the Misleading and Comparative Advertising Directive adequately.

It also calls on the Commission to follow the example of Austria which has specifically extended its Unfair Commercial Practices legislation to business directories which use the methods of the ECG, and propose amendments to the Misleading Advertising Directive specifically to prohibit advertising in business directories unless prospective clients are clearly informed that such adverts are solely an offer for a contract against payment. Such a change would close the legal loopholes that are currently used by the European City Guide and other fraudulent business directories.

Above all, this report demonstrates that scams like the European City Guide must be stopped. It also, again, emphasises that this a problem that crosses borders and each year thousands of businesses, charities and voluntary groups across Europe are tricked into signing up to what looks like a perfectly innocent business directory. In reality they are tricked into a complex contact and face aggressive demands for money and no chance to cancel the contract.

The Busutill report, which will probably be debated and voted on the floor of the Parliament in December, is not the end of the matter. While we work to pressure the Commission to eradicate the problem through law, we must also use the opportunity to raise awareness to victims to whom the advice about the ECG and other directory scams remains the same: don't fill in the forms and refuse to pay them any money, and if people receive any suspicious forms from such companies they should rip them up. For more information, check this video link.


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