Call for proposals for action grants for limiting dual quality and strengthening consumer organisations in the EU

Topic description

Scope:

Comparative tests carried out in several Member States indicated that certain products, which are sold under the same brand and with the same or very similar packaging, have a different composition or characteristics across Member States.

Furthermore, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), in close collaboration with the industry concerned, developed and implemented a common testing methodology to ensure that investigations on dual quality issues can be based on sound evidence.

In order to complement the activities of the competent national authorities in identifying and countering potentially misleading branding strategies, it is of utmost importance to further develop the capacities of consumer organisations, including in the area of comparative product testing.

The present call for proposals under the pilot project “Limiting dual quality and strengthening consumer organisations in the EU”, therefore, aims at strengthening the role of consumer organisations in relation to testing and comparing basic consumption products, both in the national and cross-border context, and at identifying potentially misleading branding strategies or misleading information provided on the packaging, including in relation to dual quality.

The empowerment of consumer organisations is also a key element of the future Single Market Programme and, at the same time, will facilitate the implementation of the New Deal for Consumers legislative package, once adopted by the co-legislators.

The target group will be consumers and consumer organisations in the European Union.

The specific objectives of the call for proposals are:

• To enable consumer organisations: (i) to test and compare basic food and non-food consumption products in relation to the issue of dual quality following sound methodological practices; (ii) to disseminate the test results, both in the national and cross-border context;
• To achieve an effective implementation of the ‘Framework for selecting and testing of food products to assess quality related characteristics: EU harmonised testing methodology’, presented by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre on 25 April 2018, at national level;
• To develop and implement sound methods for testing and comparing non-food products;
• To identify potentially misleading branding strategies or potentially misleading information provided on the packaging, and to create tools for reporting them in all relevant instances, in order to maximise consumer protection;
• To exchange best practices and to facilitate cross-border cooperation between consumer organisations and/or competent authorities and relevant private players and to improve consumer organisations’ advocacy policies in the above priority areas.

Priorities and activities to be co-financed

Within one or more of the above described objectives, the following activities can be funded:

• Training of consumer organisations to develop or enhance testing expertise;
• Exchange of good practices and knowledge-sharing events and/or seminars;
• Set up or improvement of networks of consumer organisations involved in testing and/or other measures;
• Development and rolling out of testing and comparison pilot projects in line with sound methodological principles, such as in particular the common methodology developed by the Joint Research Centre for testing of food products;
• Awareness raising and/or advocacy activities among consumer organisations, public authorities, stakeholders and/or the public at large;
• Development of IT tools to report on dual quality products or misleading branding information;
• Activities to support the implementation of the ‘Framework for selecting and testing of food products to assess quality related characteristics: EU harmonised testing methodology’, presented by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre on 25 April 2018, at national level.

Expected results

• Individual consumer organisations reinforce their capacities to test and compare basic food and non-food consumption products in relation to dual quality and are capable to disseminate the test results in line with sound methodological principles;
• Consumer organisations are able to identify potentially misleading branding strategies including for example the provision of potentially misleading information on the packaging;
• Existing national and cross-border networks of consumer organisations involved in the above areas are reinforced and new ones are set up;
• The number and efficiency of national and cross-border partnerships between consumer organisations and other players, including public authorities and private sector, are increased, exchange of best practices between them improved;
• More and better information and data also coming from monitoring and reporting activities are made available to better assess past/existing national policies, and design new ones.