BEUC - The European Consumer Organisation

As of 31 July 2026, consumers will be able to use their phones, tablets, washing machines, or dishwashers longer thanks to easier repairs. Phones, tablets, dishwashers, washing machines, or vacuum cleaners can have a limited lifespan and break after a few years. Some of their components like batteries wear out, deteriorating products’ use. Most consumers tend to replace them once their use is impaired.

Consumer-friendly charging is instrumental for the mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). As well as binding deployment targets for public charging infrastructure, the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) includes important requirements on price transparency and payment methods.

This policy note is based on an analytical study carried out for Transport & Environment (T&E) and the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) in the context of the upcoming review of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR). The objective of the study is to assess how AFIR can better ensure a transparent, predictable and user-friendly charging experience across Europe.

Have you ever scrolled through X, seen a blue checkmark or blue tick and thought: “this account must be legitimate”? That little blue badge still feels like a stamp of trust from the platform’s Twitter days. But is this really still the case and is the change clear enough for users? This question is one of the main points of the European Commission’s decision to fine X under the Digital Services Act (DSA) for “dark patterns”. The DSA is designed to make online platforms safer and more transparent.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) supports the decisions published today by the European Commission which find that Google has breached the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by engaging in anti-steering and self-preferencing practices. Google must immediately come forward with fully compliant solutions that stop favouring its own services in Google Search (self-preferencing).

Based on the selection of 600 popular and widely available secondhand PHEVs (100 per country) retrieved from major resale websites, this report presents the choice of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs) offered to consumers on the second-hand market, in six European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Belgium, and Slovenia.

Consumers currently face a shortage of affordable vehicle options on the market and are compelled to purchase second-hand. Therefore, EU policies must focus on incentivising the supply of used Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), which are cheaper to buy, to run and to maintain, but whose availability is still insufficient, especially in the small segment.

The EU today published a series of proposals [1] to decarbonise Europe’s economy and reform energy bills. For consumers, this can mean more affordable bills and easier participation in the energy transition. As well as a 2030 electrification target to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels and a heating and cooling action plan, the Commission plans to ensure electricity is taxed less than gas. This is key to incentivise the shift to heat pumps.

Ending the de minimis exemption is not a brand-new customs burden invented out of thin air. It is the end of an exemption that made sense when low-value parcels were rare. It no longer fits a shopping world built on one-click orders and cross-border marketplaces. In other words, the rules are catching up with how people shop today. The de minimis concept made sense when low-value parcels were the exception (aka shopping for very niche products from outside the EU on paper catalogues).

Smartphones have become easier to repair thanks to EU regulation, according to a new market check carried out by consumer groups across Europe. By the same token, vacuum cleaners, which are not subject to the same regulation, remain more difficult to repair.