According to the UK European Consumer Centre there has been an almost 30% rise in complaints from car hire companies based in the EU. The most complained of traders were based in Spain, Italy, Iceland and Malta.
Disputes tended to relate to fuel usage – pay for full tank regardless of how much actually used; insurance – unrequested, overpriced or excess waiver; and damage – especially where the drop off was unsupervised.
The number of complaints and enquires received from July 2016 to June 2017 were 629, whereas over the same period in the two previous years stood at 486 and 498 respectively.
Of course we need to take this information with some degree of caution. We don’t know how many are complaints that were upheld, complaints that were frivolous or were simply enquiries. Over the last year there could simply have been an increased awareness of the role of the UK European Consumer Centre, which seeks to resolve cross border disputes for UK citizens.
On average 55 vulnerabilities are identified daily.
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Review your organisations priorities and ask ‘can we afford a breach?’. What do I do during an incident? Who do I involve? When do I involve the ICO?
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