Consumer Law Enforcement Forum project (CLEF)
This project is concerned with the role consumer organisations can play in making the consumer protection rules developed by the EU fully and equally effective throughout the Community, in particular in the new Member States.
Making sure consumer organisations are aware of the enforcement possibilities that are available is the central task of this project, allowing consumer organisations to learn from the experiences of others. The project deals with the involvement and the possible roles of consumer organisations in both public enforcement i.e. getting public authorities to more fully engage with consumer problems and in private enforcement i.e. bringing case to courts via collective action (litigation).
The first pillar of the project is the establishment of a Consumer Law Enforcement Forum (CLEF) with the objective of discussing enforcement means, activities and problems in the various Member States and in different areas of consumer law.
The results of the Forum meetings are summarised and transferred into consumer law enforcement guidelines to assist in the enforcement of consumer law and to disseminate information to consumer organisations and consumers.
The second pillar of the project is to help consumer organisations in the new Member States and accessing countries to develop strategies on enforcement activities and to empower them to improve enforcement in their country through “knowledge transfer courses” focusing in particular on their specific needs and on the practical aspects of enforcement activities.
OrganisationBEUC the European Consumer Organisation, is the secretariat for CLEF. It is responsible for all organisational and management tasks of the project.
