Consumer protection has reached a new level: AECRA helps without legal action

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 07. 25. 11:07

The European Consumers’ Rights and Advocacy Association (AECRA) is successfully handling more and more consumer cases. According to the NGO’s latest report, they have taken action against numerous consumer and data protection violations in the past six months – in many cases, with the parties to the dispute reaching an out-of-court settlement through AECRA mediation.

One of AECRA’s greatest strengths is that it helps consumers not only with legal means, but also with alternative dispute resolution solutions – whether it is about online shopping, service complaints or data processing problems. The association emphasizes that they are particularly proud of the cases where, thanks to their intervention, the parties were able to resolve the dispute amicably without legal proceedings.

The work of the Association has also been recognized by the Ministry of National Economy: in the spring of 2025, AECRA was officially authorized to initiate representative actions to protect the collective interests of consumers – not only domestically, but also in cross-border cases.

This means that AECRA can now also take legal action in cases where a large number of consumers are affected by an irregularity, such as a misleading online service, unfair commercial practices or mass data processing errors.

According to the announcement, AECRA’s legal team is already working on a case related to a violation affecting a significant number of Hungarian and EU consumers. They are expected to take action against the digital service provider concerned during the summer – although details have not yet been announced, the organization’s goal is to achieve real change by using the means of public interest enforcement.