The article aims to analyse selected aspects of consumer protection within the European Union concerning unfair commercial practices. The considerations focus on providing examples of unfair market practices based on Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005. A synthesis of unfair market practices in the European Union has also been made. Selected case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in this area has been presented. On the basis of the analysis, it has been found that when Member States do not apply EU law in the field of unfair commercial practices in an appropriate manner, the Court of Justice of the European Union interprets EU law. It also adjudicates legal disputes between EU governments and EU institutions, as well as cases of individuals, i.e. consumers, or consumer organizations who believe that their rights have been violated by EU institutions.

Agroecology, historically driven by social movements as a resistance strategy, has recently been incorporated into public policy agendas. The National Agroecology Plan (PNA) prioritizes family farming and establishes among its strategic axes the access, distribution, and consumption of agroecological food. This study aims to characterize the short supply chains for agroecological products, focusing on associative and short-circuit strategies, as well as analyzing the constraints of public policies. To achieve this, secondary information sources, interviews with qualified informants, and the implementation of an online form for characterizing short sales circuits were applied. A total of 126 sales spaces were identified, of which 91 belong to short supply chains and are predominantly located in the metropolitan area. The main short supply chains are fairs, baskets, direct on-farms sales, and local stores or stalls. Most strategies are linked to farmer and/or consumer organizations, with the Uruguay Agroecology Network playing a central role. Among the identified limitations are logistical aspects, scale issues, and a lack of state support. The limited budget allocated for the implementation of the PNA and the regulatory changes that affected certification through the Participatory Guarantee System of the RAU reflect problems and contradictions in recent public policies. Despite these limitations, the initiatives aim to redefine market relations by strengthening the production-consumption link through approaches rooted in social and solidarity economy.

Guidelines update. To provide management recommendations and strategies for cognitive impairment (CI) in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) for healthcare professionals (HCPs). SCI Units, NSW, Australia. The development encompassed multiple stages, commencing with establishment of the multidisciplinary advisory committee, followed by expert consultations. A rapid review and e-Delphi surveys were undertaken for the seven identified themes to achieve consensus for a new section on CI in an existing psychosocial guide. The intended primary end-user for this guide consists of the HCPs providing treatment to people with SCI in the acute, rehabilitation, and community settings. The secondary end-user includes consumer organisations, health planners, and policy makers. The expert consultation resulted in developing seven key themes to provide a foundational structure to the guidance about CI. For the first round of the Delphi survey, 40 (out of 49) statements received agreement levels exceeding 95% and were accepted without revisions. In the second round, two statements were deleted, and seven statements were amended based on the feedback received. After the final round, a total of 47 statements were accepted and formed 20 recommendations under seven themes as the final version of the cognitive guide. This updated guidance for managing CI in people with SCI emphasises the importance of person-centred care and the identification of barriers and facilitators for improved communication between the multidisciplinary HCPs andpatients with SCI and their family members. This will ultimately enhance overall rehabilitation outcomes including self-efficacy, adjustment, and quality of life.

Background and RationaleThe European Injury Database (EU-IDB) is a registration of injuries, based on Emergency Department visits. It covers all injuries, i.e. due to road traffic, workplace, home and leisure accidents, self-harm and violence. The aim of the EU-IDB is to provide policy makers and injury prevention practitioners, manufacturers, consumer and standardization organizations, and researchers with the best available information on frequency, main causes, circumstances and consequences of injuries that are treated in emergency departments in up to 26 countries across Europe. Data are disseminated in a renewed online interactive dashboard, published on the EuroSafe website.ObjectivesThe objective of this workshop is to demonstrate how the dashboard can enhance injury research and support data driven policymaking for injury prevention purposes across Europe.MethodologyThe workshop will start with a general introduction on the IDB network, the methods for data collection and the kind of data available in the dashboard, followed by a demonstration of the interactive dashboard, allowing participants to ask questions and discuss results. Subsequently, participants will be divided in subgroups, based on their personal interests in specific injury domains (e.g. child injuries, road traffic injuries or sports injuries). The main part of the workshop will consist of hands-on data analysis on specific themes, guided by members of the IDB Advisory Board. The last part of the workshop will be spent on plenary feedback on the results and insights of the analyses.Target AudienceResearchers, policymakers, medical staff, consumer organisations, national database administrators EU-IDBExpected Outcomes• Participants have a general knowledge on the EU-IDB network and the data that are being collected.• Participants know where to find the EU-IDB interactive dashboard and how to use it.• Participants gather insight in figures on their injury domain of interest.• Participants understand the value of EU-IDB data for research purposes and data driven policymaking on injury prevention.• Participants will be motivated to share their new knowledge on the availability of European injury data and promote the use of the IDB dashboard in their own network.Key messages• EU-IDB network collects and disseminates data on injuries, based on registrations at Emergency Departments across Europe.• Not all EU countries participate, but we are currently strengthening• The available data can and should be used for research on risk groups, causes of accidents and types of injuries.• Injury prevention and policymaking should be data driven and based on reliable injury data.

BackgroundThe European Union is undergoing a paradigm shift in its approach to product safety and sustainability, driven by new regulations such as the General Product Safety Regulation and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. These legislative changes redefine the role of consumers as active agents, while consumer organisations are being called to act as trusted flaggers with new responsibilities in educating and supporting diverse consumer groups. However, many of these organisations lack the tools, training, and resources needed to fulfill this role effectively, especially at the local level.ObjectivesCo-founded by the Erasmus+ Programme, ECP 8 80 aims to upskil consumer educators through vocational training, using the 8 80 approach to support all consumers, especially vulnerable ones such as children (the 8) and elderly (the 80), towards safer, more informed choices. The project seeks to empower professionals with tools and knowledge to adapt to new product safety regulations and address diverse consumer profiles and vulnerabilities.ResultsThe project develops the following results:• ECP 8 80 Toolkit, a multilingual, flexible training resource co-created with professionals across Spain and Portugal. It supports understanding and implementation of European safety policies, such as the General Product Safety Regulation or the implementation of the Digital Product Passport.• Virtual and in-person training activities “Safer Consumer Mornings” facilitating peer learning and exchange of good practices at local and national levels. ECP 8 80 is primarily targeted at professionals working in consumer education: staff from consumer associations, local administrations, VET trainers and students, and other entities involved in consumer education.ConclusionsBy strengthening the capacity of consumer professionals, ECP 8 80 reduces inequalities in access to product safety knowledge and aligns vocational training with EU consumer protection policies. Ultimately, it fosters a more resilient and participative safety culture across Europe.Key messages• Empowering consumer professionals is essential to ensure that all citizens, from children to older adults, can make safe, sustainable, and informed choices in a rapidly evolving market shaped by new EU legislation.• By bridging the gap between regulation and education, ECP 8 80 strengthens the role of consumer organisations in injury prevention, digital inclusion, and sustainability, supporting the EU’s vision for a safer and fairer internal market.TopicProduct safety, consumer education, consumer organization.

Insights into the lives of families of children with neurodisabilities who have sleep problems.

Background: Registries monitor treatment pathways and outcomes, driving healthcare improvements. However, registry outputs often target professionals, hindering consumer understanding. National strategies advocate for registries to engage in consumer co-design to develop accessible, consumer-friendly resources that empower the community to make informed decisions using registry outputs. This publication outlines the process undertaken to translate four registry outputs into consumer-friendly resources. Objective: To develop resources that support consumers to understand and use registry outputs to make informed healthcare decisions. Method: The Consumer-Friendly Information project employed a three-stage co-design approach over 12 months: establishment, consultation and resource development. A mix of lived experience and general consumers were recruited through diverse channels including consumer organisations and clinicians. Consumers were educated on registry outputs, identified key messages and contributed to resource creation through prototypes and iterative feedback. Audience-specific considerations and continuous communication between consumers, registries, and designers helped to balance scientific accuracy and accessibility. Results: Nine consumers participated in the project, collaborating in three subgroups to co-design six resources (two per registry). These included one infographic, one fact sheet, one animation, one video and two booklets. The resources were shaped by consumer needs and preferences. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the value of co-design in translating registry outputs, emphasising the need for careful planning, expectation management and communication between stakeholders to ensure consumer-friendly and evidence-based resources are developed. Implications for health information management practice: This practical "how-to guide" documenting the co-design process will support broader adoption across registries and health organisations.

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the problem of using marketing as a mechanism for reforming the domestic public administration system. The adaptation of marketing technologies to the needs of forming a strategy for public administration reforms should be carried out on the basis of determining the directions of their influence on the strategy of innovative changes. In general, it is marketing technologies in the process of reforms that allow combining public administration, market and public mechanisms to optimize not only the activities of state authorities and local self-government bodies, but also the public sphere as a whole. The use of marketing technologies plays an important role in developing the most important part of public administration reforms, namely the distribution of functions between public administration structures, which is especially evident in the context of decentralization reforms. The marketing principle of the maximum possible approximation of the strategic subject of public administration to its object contributes to the implementation in the process of reforms of the principle of self-realization of innovative projects using the potential of self-development of the system of state authorities and local self-government bodies itself. Within the framework of the marketing management system, the level closest to the problem area, where the strategy of influencing public administration objects is formed and implemented in the context of reorientation to the needs of the consumer (citizens and organizations) and the potential of strategic management is practically realized, is the level of regional public administration and self-government, as well as the level of municipal self-government of large cities. The use of marketing technologies in the practice of public administration allows solving the problem of implementing public services on the basis of clientelism. Marketing technologies are also indispensable in the development of those aspects of management innovations that relate to ensuring the effectiveness of public administration. They help implement an integrated approach to the formation of a system of criteria and indicators of the effectiveness of management activities.

To develop a quality standard, termed a Clinical Care Standard (CCS), for the diagnosis and management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A Working Group with consumer representation cocreated guiding principles and quality statements for RA care through a series of workshops. The process was informed by consumer recommendations, clinical practice guidelines, and international quality criteria. A national survey of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and consumers was conducted to establish consensus. For each quality statement, respondents were asked to indicate, on a scale of 1-9, (1) if it is a priority area for improvement in RA care, and (2) their agreement with the content of the statement. For (1) and (2), respectively, scores between 1 and 4 indicated it was not a priority and disagreement; 5 and 6 indicated it was important but not critical and moderate agreement; and 7 to 9 indicated it was high priority and agreement. Criteria for inclusion were a mean score ≥ 7 for priority and a mean score ≥ 7 for content. The Working Group formulated 13 quality statements and established 7 guiding principles for RA care. The survey was completed by 605 consumers and 308 HCPs. The predefined criteria for inclusion were met by 12/13 quality statements. The Australian Rheumatology Association has developed the first CCS for RA in Australia. This standard will serve as an important lever for HCPs and services, consumer organizations, and policy makers to improve the quality of care for adults with RA.

Greenwashing poses significant challenges to sustainability initiatives in Indonesia, where weak regulatory frameworks and inconsistent enforcement exacerbate the issue. This study explores the interplay between greenwashing practices and legal regulations, aiming to identify gaps and propose solutions to address the problem. Employing a qualitative case study design, the research utilized document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and content observation to gather data from multiple stakeholders, including legal experts, industry practitioners, and consumer organizations. The findings reveal that 55% of sustainability claims in marketing materials lack verifiable evidence, highlighting transparency as a critical concern. Weak regulatory oversight and the absence of standardized definitions for terms like "sustainable" or "eco-friendly" further complicate the issue. The study identifies transparency, monitoring, and legal accountability as key themes requiring immediate attention. The research contributes to the existing literature by integrating legal perspectives with sustainable branding strategies, particularly in the context of developing countries. It also underscores the need for regulatory reforms that emphasize clear standards and stringent sanctions. Practical implications include recommendations for regulators to enhance oversight mechanisms and for companies to prioritize transparency to gain consumer trust. Future research should explore the effectiveness of standardized sustainability metrics and evaluate cross-country regulatory frameworks. This study offers a comprehensive foundation for addressing greenwashing and fostering authentic sustainability practices.

BackgroundThe advent of immunotherapies and targeted treatments has improved survival for some people with metastatic cancer but also increased prognostic uncertainty. To inform clinician-patient communication and supportive care, this study explored uncertainty-related coping among people with metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM) – a disease for which treatments have emerged especially suddenly.MethodsA qualitative approach was taken using semi-structured interviews. Participants with mUM were recruited through consumer organisations internationally. Interviews explored participant perspectives on the impacts of uncertainty and their related coping strategies. Analysis involved inductive coding followed by deductive coding against Mishel’s (1988) theoretical framework of uncertainty in illness.ResultsSeventeen people participated, including 10 from Australia. Participants described experiencing uncertainty as disempowering but also leveraged the opportunity it presented for remaining hopeful. Some participants used meta-cognition– alluded to as ‘tricking’ or ‘fooling’ themselves - to manage inconsistency between hoping for an exceptional response and accepting that benefits were likely to be modest at best. Most participants were able to maintain everyday normalcy but struggled to discuss their illness and treatment with family and friends. Participants reported heightened anxiety in the lead-up to routine scans and while awaiting results.ConclusionsCoping with uncertainty in the era of immunotherapy and targeted treatments involves ‘hoping for the best while preparing for the worst’. Supportive care is especially needed at the time of scans. Some patients may also benefit from help with talking to their social networks. Head-to-head comparisons are needed of differing psychological interventions.

The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR) has introduced a new regulatory perspective in food manufacturing, along with influencing consumers' perception of health-related food claims. Since 2006, a new standard of science-based claims has significantly impacted the European health food market. Over the years, numerous additional decisions have been made, and the ongoing process remains challenging for policymakers striving to harmonize consumer protection and trade within and outside the European Union (EU). This paper presents the current state of the NHCR's implementation, along with key events aimed at enhancing understanding among consumer organizations and food industry stakeholders, while also offering an insider perspective on relevant policy issues. Additionally, we address two pertinent policy issues to elucidate the associated challenges and opportunities, providing insights to support informed decision-making by policymakers. We use the nutrient profiles framework as a case study to illustrate considerations underpinning the objective of "consumer protection", while the "probiotics" market serves as an example for exploring the goal of "facilitation of trade". This historical perspective and reflection lead us to propose possible solutions for future food regulation.

Disentangling social perspectives on the use of reclaimed water in agriculture using Q methodology.

Survival of patients with prostate and breast cancer, the commonest cancer in men and women, respectively, has markedly improved with advances in early diagnosis, treatment and multi-disciplinary care by the oncology and surgical community. However, the use of increasingly potent endocrine therapies may cause bone loss, resulting in secondary osteoporosis. This review summarises the current management of cancer treatment-induced bone loss in this group of patients at high risk of osteoporotic fractures with their attendant morbidity and mortality. Bone health is an increasingly important part of cancer survivorship. Radiation and medical oncologists, urologists, bone health experts, general practitioners, healthcare professional bodies and bone health and cancer consumer organisations should increase awareness of the potential adverse effect of endocrine therapy on bone health. While this should never delay cancer treatment, bone health should be part of routine care for men and women receiving endocrine therapy for prostate and breast cancer.

ObjectivesDown syndrome, the most common genetic disorder, is caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. We identified the top 10 patient and...

In the European Union (EU), the recent adoption of the Substances of Human Origin (SoHO) Regulation in June 2024 brings into force new harmonised rules for human cells, tissues and blood. This legislation interacts with the pre-existing Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) Regulation. This paper looks at the recent EU public consultations on the proposed SoHO Regulation and compares them with the prior consultations on the ATMP Regulation given the interplay between these two Acts. Information on each contributor to the three most recent consultations on SoHO and the two available consultations on the ATMP was collected, analysed, and used to develop a novel typology of entities participating in the consultations. This data set included the country of origin of each entity making a contribution and the type of entity involved (Academic/Research institutions, National Bodies, Companies, Business organizations, Patient and Consumer organizations, Learned Societies, Individual citizens, Networks/Innovation organizations, and Other Non-Governmental Organizations). The results show that the SoHO consultations attracted a far greater total volume of participants and displayed a greater variety of organizations from more distinct countries compared to the ATMP consultations. The most significant finding is the very low overlap in organisations making a contribution to both a SoHO and an ATMP consultations. This strongly suggests that there is significant institutional fragmentation between organisations collecting human biomaterials and organisations developing ATMP for market. Given that collection of biomaterials is a necessary first step in the development of most ATMP, European policy makers wishing to support ‘homegrown’ innovation with ATMP should give greater consideration to building better links between organisations collecting biomaterials and ATMP developers.

Abstract Digital infrastructures, such as online platforms, and digital services, such as scoring, and the algorithms behind them, have often been described as a “black box.” This is a problem for consumers and consumer organizations that wish to enforce their individual rights or collective remedies in civil law litigation. The reason is that traditionally, the burden of proof is normally on the claimant, who has to prove those elements of a legal provision that act in their favour, whereas the burden of proof for defences is normally on the defendant. Burden of proof has therefore been identified as a major obstacle in the fight against digital unfairness. This means, at the same time, that the important element of private enforcement is insufficient, which hampers the effectiveness of EU consumer law in general. On this background, this article discusses, after some preliminary remarks addressing the scope of the problem, (1) to what extent EU law already requires alleviations of the burden of proof in litigation around unfair digital commercial practices in national courts and (2) how a tailor-made regime of specific provisions related to the burden of proof could, or should, be designed.

BackgroundPregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), affect a significant proportion of women in Australia, with long-term implications for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Despite existing preventive measures, participation in ongoing health monitoring remains low. This study aims to explore women’s preferences and experiences regarding preventive healthcare after GDM and HDP, and to identify their unanswered questions about the association between these conditions and future CVD risk.MethodsA participatory, qualitative approach was adopted, involving a Lived Experience Expert Group (LEE Group) to plan, conduct, and interpret focus groups with women who had experienced either GDM or HDP. Participants were recruited through health consumer and community organisations and took part in two focus groups conducted via Zoom. The focus groups involved a stimulus presentation about CVD and GDM or HDP, facilitated group discussion about participants’ health and healthcare since their pregnancy, and Nominal Group Technique to prioritise participants’ questions about their CVD risk. Focus groups were audio recorded and transcripts from each group were analysed thematically. Synthesised Member Checking was used to verify the trustworthiness of findings.ResultsTwelve women participated in the focus groups, with distinct themes emerging from the GDM and HDP focus groups. Participants were previously unaware of the association between their pregnancy complication and increased risk of future CVD and wished to know more. Three themes were generated from the GDM focus groups: ‘a distressing diagnosis’; ‘degrees of diabetes’; and ‘balancing motherhood and self-care’. Two themes were generated from the HDP focus groups: ‘women’s concerns were dismissed’ and ‘wanting follow up at the right time and with the right person’. The ‘top ten’ questions from each group focussed on improving maternity care, preventing CVD, and (for the HDP group) concerns beyond CVD.ConclusionsWomen’s capacity to engage in preventive health after GDM and HDP is influenced by their maternity care experiences and the accessibility of primary care pathways. Future interventions should focus on improving woman-centred maternity care, ensuring seamless transitions to primary care, and addressing the social determinants of health for new mothers.

ABSTRACT This study addresses the phenomenon of tradition-washing where consumers may infer that food products staged to appear traditional are green due to the associations of traditionality with naturalness, healthiness, tastiness, safety or authenticity. This inference persists despite limited evidence that traditional production methods result in lower environmental impact. This study tests whether communication of traditionality activates judgments of greenness and the psychological mechanisms that may explain this effect. We also examine two boundary conditions: product category and consumer dispositional nostalgia. An online experiment with 280 participants shows that the communication of traditional production significantly enhances consumer preferences and perceptions of greenness by eliciting feelings of groundedness. The effect is greater among consumers lower in nostalgia and similar across vice and virtue product categories. This study calls attention to the risk of tradition-washing as consumers conflate traditionality with greenness perceptions. Moreover, this study extends past work on the effects of traditional production methods on consumers by showing the mediating role of feelings of groundedness: because traditionality makes consumers more grounded, they elicit product perceptions of being greener and more desirable. Our findings have practical implications for stakeholders, namely companies, policymakers and consumer organizations to attenuate the risk of tradition-washing.

This paper addresses the following question: What is the spatial pattern of the spread of the most significant consumer cooperatives in Hungary in the first quarter of a century following their establishment in 1898? Spatial pattern is employed as an indicator in order to ascertain the spatial developmental differences. My hypothesis is that organising and operating a cooperative is an indicator of community activity with the objective of attaining a superior quality of life. Although the Hangya Consumption Cooperative in Hungary received considerable support from landlords and later the state, the study indicates that local cultural patterns of organisation and the strength of traditional economic districts are significant. Concurrently, the analysis demonstrates that it is possible to delineate the role of social welfare in the establishment and functioning of local consumer organisations. On the other hand, the Hangya’s operations served to disseminate anti-Semitic ideologies. The macro-regional analysis aims to contribute to the broader investigation of peasant farm development, grassroots modernisation, and the discourse on territorial inequality.