Statutes

Article 2

Purpose

1. The Association is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to defend consumers in the European Union, with the specific goal of increasing consumers’ welfare, and the general goal of promoting the rule of Law, the environment and economy of the European Union.

2. For the purposes of the previous number, defending consumers is understood as safeguarding and promoting the rights and interests of consumers who are European Union citizens or who are citizens of third States residing within the European Union, and including, but not being limited to, the consumers who are members of the Association.

3. The Association protects the rights of consumers which are granted to them by the legal orders of the European Union and of the Member States of the European Union, including those deriving from Consumer Law, rules on standard contractual clauses, Advertising Law, Competition Law, Unfair Trading Practices Law, Regulatory Law, Environmental Law and Privacy and Data Protection Law, including the General Data Protection Regulation.

4. In pursuing the goals mentioned in the previous numbers, the Association is empowered to carry out all legal acts required for the purpose, including:

a) Cooperate with authorities of the Member States and of the European Union whose competences affect, directly or indirectly, the interests and rights of consumers;

b) Intervening, in accordance with applicable laws, as an interested third party in administrative or judicial proceedings which affect the interests and rights of consumers;

c) Promote the active participation of consumers in the promotion and defense of the Association’s goals;

d) Organize and submit petitions and other initiatives corresponding to the exercise of citizens’ political rights, in accordance with applicable laws, to authorities of the Member States and of the European Union, with the aim of pursuing the Association’s goals;

e) To the extent allowed by applicable laws, exercise the rights deriving from the statute of social partner in issues concerning consumer policy, including the representation of consumers in public consultation and auditing procedures;

f) To the extent allowed by applicable laws, exercise the right to receive clarifications on the mechanism for arriving at prices for goods and services;

g) To the extent allowed by applicable laws, exercise the right to participate in procedures aimed at regulating prices of supply of goods and services of general interest and request clarifications on adopted tariffs and on the quality of the services;

h) Arrive at extrajudicial settlements with persons who have infringed consumer rights, so as to ensure compliance with the law and/or to obtain compensation for damage caused to consumers as a result of a violation of their rights and/or individual and collective interests;

i) Promote and file judicial claims, or resort to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, to defend European Union consumers’ rights and collective and individual interests, to the extent allowed by applicable laws, namely by resorting to representative proceedings in the “opt-in” or “opt-out” models (including “popular action”), or any other procedural means of defending the rights and diffused, collective or homogeneous individual interests of consumers, with the possible goals, among others, of obtaining the declaration of the existence of rights and obligations, of behavioural injunctions and/or of compensation for damage caused to consumers as a result of a violation of their rights or interests;

j) Enter into agreements and partnerships with other persons with the aim of promoting the Association’s goals;

k) Organize information campaigns, conferences, seminars and training actions and to promote studies and research projects relevant to the pursuit of the Association’s goals;

l) Apply to and be the beneficiary of sources of public or private funding which do not jeopardize its decision-making independence and are compatible with the pursuit of its goals;

m) Exercise any other competence awarded to it by the rules of the European Union or of its Member States.