**3. How the COVID-19 pandemic plagued European Consumer Rights: the Irish Airlines case**

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has, without a doubt, caused huge problems in the sphere of consumer protection, contributing, in a period of such confusion and economic collapse for States, to consumer rights taking a back seat compared to the massive economic crisis that companies, often supported by necessary State intervention, had to contend with.

In this sense, the COVID-19 pandemic "*destroyed"* the economy of certain sectors such as primarily tourism and air transport, making State intervention in this regard inevitable. Emblematic, in this regard, was the Irish example where, as highlighted by the special report of the European Court of Auditors entitled *"Air passenger Rights* 

*during the Covid-19 Pandemic,"* it was pointed out that the fundamental rights of air passengers were in no way protected during the pandemic. Similarly, refunds for delays or cancelations did not follow a common guideline causing more than 5000 consumer complaints from across Europe to be lodged against Irish airlines, raising the total number of cross-border complaints before the Irish European Consumer Centre (ECC) by 130% in 2019. Furthermore, and perhaps even more importantly, it was that the Member States in providing state aid, however legitimate in the opinion of the European Commission, to airlines in great financial difficulty, never cared about the position of passenger reimbursement, focusing their state aid solely on keeping these companies in business.

As a result, consumers did not find any form of protection, based on the guarantees recognized to them by the EU law, receiving, following the various claims, only vouchers—which can only be issued with the explicit consent of the passenger—instead of financial reimbursements which, according to the EU consumer law, must be issued within 7 days after the cancelation of the flight. Again, such vouchers should normally have a maximum duration of 12 months to be cashed in, but, on the contrary, airlines have extended their duration without giving consumers the opportunity to proceed with the cashing in.

As a result, even bookings made through external sites—travel agencies or online platforms—suffered major delays in the refund process because the transition from airline to consumer had to interface with an external third party that had managed the booking process. This clearly complicated the situation enormously and the ECC found it very difficult to deal with the multitude of complaints filed, while also having to ensure that refunds—which during the pandemic period amounted to approximately EUR 4 million—would be made by the airlines as quickly and as reasonably as possible [13].

The COVID-19 pandemic also caused many other problems, leading to the increasing dependence of consumers on e-commerce, especially due to difficulties in finding certain goods. This has resulted in countless online purchases, especially cross-border and with non-EU countries with no or less regulated consumer protections, inevitably making it incredibly difficult for European institutions to maintain high standards of consumer protection and guarantees during the pandemic years. Furthermore, the absence of *ad hoc* legislation has led on the one hand to the establishment of specific, non-harmonized national procedures and, on the other hand, to the inability of the European institutions to cope with a legislative gap by not providing remedies for consumers in these specific situations.

#### **3.1 The post-pandemic scenario regarding the consumer's rights in the EU**

In light of the above, having overcome the first disorienting stage of the pandemic, also and above all at the regulatory level, the EU institutions began to focus attention once again on the recognition of fundamental consumer guarantees, through a series of new measures and guidelines for States. In June 2020, the European Commission started to promote the first public consultations to discuss how consumer protection could be improved and increased, especially in view of the health emergency caused by the pandemic.

As a consequence of this, from 2021 to date, various measures were promulgated to deal with the aftermath of the pandemic by allowing consumers to claim their rights, which had been infringed and sidelined, during such an emergency situation, while also trying to stimulate cross-border cooperation, thus ensuring an increasing

#### *The Alternative Disputes Resolution System in the European Union: Consumer Protection… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108539*

harmonization of consumer protection measures, seeing their rights and position strengthened, especially with regard to cross-border negotiations.

This was due to the European institutions' awareness of the strong consequences and changes that the pandemic has caused, such as, first and foremost, the abrupt acceleration of the digitalization of services, which can, in the same way, entail increasing risks for consumers to find themselves involved in online scams in a market that is often unregulated and unsecured toward them.

In light of these circumstances, on 22 February 2021, the New Consumer Agenda 2020–2025 (Agenda 2025) was officially released, which, updating the previous Agenda of 2012, promotes and incentivizes the digital and green transition in the freedom to provide services across the European Union. The Agenda 2025 establishes a long-term vision of consumer protection by designating consumers as playing an active role in the green and digital transition that will involve the EU working together with Member States to establish the rights to be protected, addressing the needs of different consumer groups—such as those with disabilities—and promoting higher standards of protection for European consumers who purchase goods from sellers established outside the EU [14].

In particular, the Agenda 2025 focuses on five different types of key interventions:


Furthermore, the EU, realizing that consumer spending now accounts for more than 54% of the GDP of the whole European territory, opted for a long-term plan in order to increase again, after the setback due to the pandemic, the position of consumers in the European economic dynamics. In light of this, the Agenda 2025 emphasizes how these outcomes can then be achieved through a series of actions needed to address the tricky challenges, highlighted even more in the context of the current

pandemic, and to strengthen cooperation among Member States, EU institutions, and stakeholders. This is the only way to provide a fundamental boost to the sustainable recovery and resilience of the EU economy and consumers in the post-pandemic scenario.

Clearly, however, the plan outlined in Agenda 2025 will have to constitute a starting point for subsequent interventions, by the European legislator, in the sphere of other matters related to the need for consumer protection, such as the directives on unfair commercial practices, energy efficiency of Energy-Related Products that will have to be revised in the logic of a new sustainable and "circular economy" that, inevitably, contrasts with the so-called "programmed obsolescence" idea. In addition, it will also be necessary to reinforce the responsibilities and obligations of intermediaries and online platforms—especially with reference to illicit products or illegal activities—as well as to strengthen civil liability for damages caused by Artificial Intelligence—used to induce consumers to take decisions even contrary to their own interests—which inevitably push toward a necessary reform of the EC Directive No. 95/2001 on general product safety.

### **4. Conclusions**

While the presentation focuses on the substantive increase of consumer protection taking into account substantial law as well as procedural law, the analysis also points out the legislative initiatives that strive at the further development of the Internal Market and building a genuine EU economic arena. Although these initiatives are not labeled as consumer protection measures, they do intend to have a positive impact on the welfare of consumers.

Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 in the EU civil justice system has been analyzed and encouraged the ADR mechanisms to generate more confidence for consumers in cross-border transactions. As a matter of fact, Courts encourage disputing parties to explore the possibility of compromise via ADR mechanisms before agreeing to adjourn any hearings. Further, the online environment provides additional practical and economic benefits during a time of uncertainty and delays, and it represents the best mechanism to use when the parties reside in different countries.

In a scenario of uncertainty and lack of consumers' confidentiality, the Italian civil system is represented as best example of ADR resolution mechanism, by providing out-of-court settlements, collective redress, and crisis management procedures, with the aim to establish a systematic stability and financial consumer confidence in the cross-border transactions system in the new post-pandemic era [15].
