Press Release: Financial services: Commission launches out-of-court Complaints Network to improve consumer confidence

On 1.2.01, the European Commission launched an out-of-court complaints network for financial services to help businesses and consumers resolve disputes in the Internal Market fast and efficiently by avoiding, where possible, lengthy and expensive legal action. This network, called FIN-NET, has been designed particularly to facilitate the out-of-court resolution of consumer disputes when the service provider is established in an EU Member State other than that where the consumer lives. The network brings together more than 35 different national schemes that either cover financial services or handle consumer disputes. The difficulty of obtaining out-of-court redress is a barrier to the development of cross-border services, particularly in the financial sector where it risks undermining the growth of electronic commerce. In its Financial Services Action Plan and its Communication on a new strategy for the services sector, the European Commission stressed that improved consumer confidence in non-costly, simple, effective, alternatives to legal action is crucial to the creation of an integrated internal market in financial services, a key objective of the Lisbon Summit.