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When was EuroConsum e.V. founded?

EuroConsum e.V. was founded on 05.12.2006; operations in the field of consumer protection startet in 25.08.2009. Our name was later changed to “Deutscher Konsumentenbund”.

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What are your sources of its funding in general?

Sources of funding are:

• membership fees
• donations by non-profit organizations
• compensation, reimbursement and penalties
• public project funding (projects)
• own equity holdings

EuroConsum e.V. also have equity holdings of a non-profit company (EuroConsum gGmbH) that offers IT services to consumer protection agencies and watchdog organisations across Europe, from which we usually earn a revenue.

From a multi-year perspective (2020 to 2024), membership fees account for 30% (1% from individuals and 29% from institutional members), equity holdings account for 21% and donations from non-profits 28%. compensation, reimbursement and penalties account for about 21% (all figures rounded to the nearest value).

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Do you receive donations from traders or enterprises?

Other then from our own equity investment (see prior answer), we have accepted no donations from enterprises or traders in the past six years (as of January 2025).

Actually the only donation we ever received was from Microsoft Corp. To be precise: we got a discount on two bundles of discounted software licenses; in both cases, a co-payment totaling € 185.64 incl. VAT was made. The total value of that donation was: 2,733.99 EUR (value in EUR as of December 29, 2017). This lead to a major debate in the organization and we have since turned away from Microsoft products and adopted source software.

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How is it that you have a legitimate interest in protecting consumer interests?

Not only does our work suggest, that we intensify our protection for expat consumers, but our statute demands for it, too.

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Are you a non-profit-making organization?

Yes we are. Please see section 2 of our statute for details.

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Are you subject of insolvency proceedings or have you been declared insolvent?

Neither. Insolvency proceedings would usually be published via the German Insolvenzregister.

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How are you independent and not influenced by persons (other than consumers), in particular by traders, who have an economic interest in the bringing of any representative action, including in the event of funding by third parties?

We are independent of these groups. You can learn more about how this is from our common code-of-conduct.

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To that end of independence and non-influence, have you established procedures to prevent such influence and how do you prevent conflicts of interest between yourself, your funding providers and the interests of consumers?

Yes, we have established (and routinely revise) such procedures. For details please see our code-of-conduct.

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What’s your organisational structure?

As laid out in our statute we have a board and a general assembly. We also have a general management, which is not an official organ of the association. In the WhizzBang network, we also have a common legal service (Service Juridique) for which all members share the costs.

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What’s your membership structure

Our members are …

• Watchdog organizations
• Consumer Protection Agencies
• 123 individuals (December 2023).

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What’s your statutory purpose?

Here’s from our statute:

2 Purpose and non-profit-making character.

2.1 Purpose

(1) Promotion of consumer counseling and consumer protection;

(2) The association pursues exclusively charitable purposes in accordance with German law, namely the purpose of promoting consumer advice and consumer protection (main purpose), as well as fundraising for charitable purposes (secondary purpose).

(3) As part of the fulfillment of its purpose, it represents the interests of consumers by providing information and advice on a non-commercial and not merely temporary basis, in particular by a. the provision of information (usually in digital form), b. counselling consumers on their rights.

(4) Its activities are not regionally restricted.

(5) The organisation’s purpose is achieved with particular regard to the realities of European integration, its current effects on consumers and the challenges facing further European integration.

(6) This work shall include, in particular, the protection of consumers’ interests with regard to their health, protection against exploitation, both in economic terms and with regard to the exploitation of their attention (“attention economy”), against discrimination and the protection of their personal data, their freedom of choice (including the right to an informed decision).

(7) This includes, in particular, the concerns and interests of persons who reside, live, work or pursue an education in a country other than the country of their birth or the country of their nationality (“expats”).

(8) In particular, the goal is also to secure, expand and intensify the participation of all in the benefits of European integration and to mitigate the disadvantages of transformation processes in order to complete the common area of freedom, security and justice, because it is our conviction that the fate of our Union will be decided by the fate of the most marginalised people.

(9) It is also an objective to improve access to harmonized law in the Member States (including the future candidate countries).

2.2 Relation to the EU

The association values the achievements of European unification, including the single market, and is committed to them and to the creation of a common area of freedom, security and justice. It is particularly committed to supporting consumers in cases with an intra-Community dimension. The association will do its utmost to support the consumer protection work of the European institutions, in particular the European Commission. Modern means of communication (internet, e-mail, etc.) and Europe’s linguistic and cultural pluralism are of particular importance in the association’s work.

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What are your activities?

Great you ask, because you came to the right place: find out about our counseling, our media or community work and how we lobby on your behalf as an expat.

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