Annual
report 2025

• The new Right to Repair Directive and the Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition both included many positive improvements for consumers. The Right to Repair Directive includes new rules strengthening consumer rights when goods are defective and will make repair an easier option for consumers. The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive will better protect consumers against greenwashing, inform them about the durability and repairability of products, and will ban certain unfair business practices that lead to short product lifespans.
• The EU introduced new Ecodesign rules in June 2025 that for the first time set durability and repairability requirements for smartphones and tablets, a key BEUC request for many years. Devices will offer longer-lasting batteries and be easier to repair, allowing consumers to access spare parts and software updates for longer. This will be complemented by information requirements on energy consumption, durability and reparability.  

• The European Commission largely took account of BEUC’s work on improving consumer protection in the digital world as part of its Consumer Agenda, which was published in November 2025.
• BEUCs work on the Payment Services Regulation led to stronger protection for consumers against impersonation and investment fraud, particularly online. Consumers will be re-imbursed if they have been harmed by bank impersonation fraud and banks have a strong economic incentive and legal means to stop platforms from hosting fraudulent adverts. The rules will apply from 2027.

• The European Commission made its first non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Among other things, it found that X had breached key transparency obligations. The Commission also accepted TikTok’s binding commitments to improve advertising transparency, echoing BEUC’s long-standing concerns about TikTok’s marketing and commercial practices. The Commission also stated in preliminary findings that Meta had breached the DSA content moderation obligations. This followed BEUC’s Dutch member Consumentenbond already raising the alarm about the issue previously.
• We also welcomed the General Court's ruling that upheld the designation of Amazon as a ‘Very Large Online Platform’ (VLOP) under the DSA. BEUC had intervened in the case alongside the European Commission to defend the European consumer view.
• The European Commission also ruled that Apple and Meta were not complying with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). For Apple, its App Store was seen to be preventing app developers from proposing alternative channels for offers and content, while Meta must seek users’ consent for the use of their personal data for advertising purposes. BEUC had previously highlighted both companies’ practices.

The new toy safety regulation is a big win for children and consumers. For example, toys will need to become, by 1 August 2030, free from cancer-causing chemicals and endocrine disruptors. There will be strengthened market surveillance and customs checks and manufacturers of digitally connected toys must consider risks to children's mental health. The final text includes many of BEUC’S recommendations from 2023–2025. 

EU countries included BEUC’s recommendations to preserve competition and consumer protection in telecoms markets in their political conclusions on the European Commission’s White Paper on digital infrastructure.

Consumers are set to benefit from better access to generic medicines and suffer fewer shortages as of 2028 after EU legislators took on board BEUC’s recommendations in their agreement on the revised EU pharmaceutical legislation.

Under the EU’s ‘wine package,’ partially de-alcoholised wines will from 2026 use the label ‘reduced alcohol’ in line with BEUC’s recommendation. This label is better than other options that had been proposed, as it does not mislead consumers into thinking that low alcohol consumption is safe. 

• In 2025, BEUC as a member of the Critical Medicines Alliance, gave input on how to strengthen the security of the supply of medicines and issued recommendations for the Critical Medicines Act. 
• The adoption of an EU Regulation on compulsory licensing for crisis management, a longstanding BEUC recommendation, will help ensure timely access to medicines during a public health emergency as of 2026.

We carried out a mystery shopping exercise across Europe with the European Environmental Bureau. We found that Ecolabel products in most countries are cheaper than their non-Ecolabelled equivalents. However, we also found that availability varied significantly from Scandinavia (very easy) compared to other parts of Europe.

We ran a consumer survey across Europe asking the question: is sustainable finance too green to be true? We found that, despite significant consumer interest for sustainable investment products, consumers are being put off investing sustainably by misleading or unreliable green claims.

We also found that consumers feel consistently less informed about sustainability aspects of their investments (compared to financial ones), and many consumers have misplaced trust that products comply with strict sustainability legislation.

Between March and September 2025, 14 BEUC consumer organisations from 12 countries monitored about 650 posts and videos from social media influencers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

The evidence collected confirmed widespread use of hidden advertising practices and how influencers appeal to emotions to shape consumers’ preferences. It also shows how brands use influencer marketing to give a positive spin to their reputation in consumers’ eyes, particularly the youngest ones.

BEUC’s latest total cost of ownership study revealed that electric cars are at a turning point in Europe, with the cost of owning an electric car becoming competitive with conventional vehicles for first owners as early as 2026. 

We carried out a survey of 10,000 consumers in 10 eurozone countries to asks them what they expect from the digital euro and how they see the future of digital payments. Their expectations for the digital euro were very clear: they expect it to be above all secure, easy to use, and free.

We ran a survey that revealed consumers’ positive attitude towards the agricultural sector. While most consumers have heard of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), few know the details, and the survey revealed that the way EU farm subsidies are currently spent is not in line with consumer expectations.

For consumers, CAP subsidies should primarily support the income of small- and medium-scale farms and young farmers, while rewarding the up-take of more sustainable practices.

We published a report looking at the real lived experience of consumers that have installed a heat pump in their home. The report explores the benefits that heat pumps can bring to people’s homes and what policymakers can learn from that experience. After all, the full potential of the heat pump is yet to be realised and making it a more widely-used technology must be done in a way that benefits consumers.

The European Commission published a communication on e-commerce to tackle the many problems consumers face when shopping online. BEUC welcomed the plan and called for swift action to enforce rigorously existing laws around chemicals, online platforms and product safety and to wrap up important legislation.

The European Commission published a roadmap for the agriculture and food sector until 2040. The Vision followed a Strategic Dialogue, gathering key players across the food supply chain (including BEUC), which had delivered promising results for consumers, including a shared commitment to boost access to healthy and sustainable food. Regrettably, the Vision missed an opportunity in food affordability and healthier diets.

We reacted after European Commission proposals to simplify data protection rules. We made the point that opening the GDPR could not only put consumers’ rights at risk but also create legal uncertainty for companies, raising costs for them if they would need to adapt to new rules.

We reacted positively to European Commission proposals as part of its Savings and Investment Union, that took on board many of BEUC’s recommendations to make it easier for consumers to invest and save for their retirement.

The European Commission announced plans to row back on 2035 car CO2 targets in its Automotive Package. Although disappointing, we welcomed accompanying measures aimed at making electric vehicles more affordable and new car labelling rules to clarify cars’ emissions before purchase.

In January, the European Commission published its economic vision for the next five years: its ‘Competitiveness Compass’. We underlined the need for European industry to deliver safe, sustainable and affordable products to consumers, which will allow the European economy to fill the growth gap with powers like the US and China. We also sounded the alarm when the Commission announced proposals to significantly scale back its green finance rules and rules on chemicals in cosmetics.

BEUC underlined the importance of consumer protection when several key pieces of consumer legislation were removed from the European Commission’s 2025 Work Programme.

We reacted positively after EU countries reached a deal on the EU Customs reform, which aims to address the surge in non-compliant, dangerous, and low-quality products entering the EU single market.

In January, we took part in an AI Summit in Paris. We made the point that AI represents an opportunity for consumers, but there must be guardrails in place and action to ensure healthy competition in the sector. BEUC’s Agustín Reyna also attended a dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace, attended by heads of state, leading businesses and a handful of civil society representatives.

We made the call that the EU should enforce its own rules without US interference. This was after remarks from the US Administration in February to investigate and threaten trade retaliation for European legislation that safeguards European consumers and ensures the openness and contestability of its digital markets.

The Belgian Ministry designated BEUC as a Qualified Entity eligible to bring representative actions in March 2025.  BEUC, together with its members, will be able to litigate before national courts to better enforce consumer rights across Europe. This is an important tool which complements the long-standing work of BEUC representing consumers before the European Commission in enforcement cases and the EU Courts.

BEUC continued to actively contribute to the implementation of the DMA to ensure consumers benefit from new rights and possibilities in digital markets. BEUC closely monitored gatekeepers’ compliance: by the end of 2025, we contributed 17 different legal submissions to the European Commission regarding potential non-compliance on the most consumer-facing provisions. We also paid close attention to changes in the market made possible by the DMA.

• BEUC filed a complaint in May against airlines for unduly charging consumers for their hand luggage. Together with 16 of our members from 12 countries, BEUC denounced how airlines take advantage of consumers by charging additional fees to passengers whose hand baggage does not match their guidelines, which has already been declared illegal.
• In June, BEUC filed a complaint against online fashion giant SHEIN for its use of deceptive practices that fuel the overconsumption of clothing. This is harmful to consumers financially, it is harmful to the environment (the production and subsequent textile waste), and to the people that produce the clothing (which often contains harmful chemicals and made in exploitative conditions).

BEUC actively monitored and continued the work on its pending CPC alerts about video games (participating in a European Commission workshop), Green (f)lying (publication of a second anniversary report taking stock of the changes made after the alert and a press reaction when the case was closed in November), Temu (publication of testing results), and Meta’s pay-or-consent model.

BEUC organised workshops with authorities (consumer and competition authorities) to discuss topics of common interest and enforcement priorities. On 16 May 2025, BEUC co-organised a workshop on misleading recycling claims and how to address them. BEUC also participated in a workshop on video games organised by the CPC-Network and the European Commission.

• BEUC intervened in several cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union. We pleaded before the EU Court in January to defend the 2022 General Court ruling (known as the Google Android case) which found that Google had broken EU competition law.
• BEUC also pleaded before the EU’s General Court in June to defend Amazon’s designation as a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act and that it must therefore meet all its obligations.
• BEUC applied to intervene as a third party in support of the European Commission following Meta’s and Apple’s appeals against the Commission’s non-compliance decisions under the DMA. BEUC was approved as a third party supporting the Commission in Apple’s challenge to the Commission’s decision in Case AT.40437 – Apple – App Store Practices (music streaming). 

In 2025, BEUC continued to advocate for more fairness in the digital world. We submitted a response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the upcoming proposal for a Digital Fairness Act (DFA) and published a position paper on the same topic. The DFA was also one of the main discussion points at our Annual Conference.

Four training courses/workshops were organised for Consumer Law Ready Next trainers (BEUC members included) on a variety of consumer-related topics as part of the Consumer Law Ready Next project. These allowed our trainers to deliver training to SMEs at national level, contributing to a better understanding of their obligations.

In 2025, we continued the CLEAR-HP project. Project partners organised heat pump collective purchase campaigns across Europe and shared regular news on the technology throughout the year.

By offering rigorously tested heat pump options and organising collective purchase campaigns, this project enables consumers to select energy-efficient products. They have also been able to benefit from proper home assessments, information about financing options, and have their heat pumps installed by certified professionals, ensuring a seamless experience.

In 2025, BEUC continued supporting consumer organisations and digital rights groups in strengthening their expertise and activities in the field of private enforcement of consumer rights. As part of its capacity-building efforts, BEUC facilitated information exchange through collective redress newsletters in February, May, August, and November. These activities are part of a two-year collective redress project (2024–2025), building on the results of the previous project (2022–2023). Both projects received funding from Luminate.

The Ecodesigned4LIFE projects aims to promote the representation of civil society in the preparation of EU rules setting sustainability criteria for the design of products and promoting energy and resource efficiency. In 2025, the project made recommendations on the first Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) Working Plan and the new rules on the destruction of unsold goods, as well as contributed to the preparation of new rules for textile apparel, washing machines, and horizontal repairability requirements. BEUC also contributed to the discussions around the Omnibus to simplify energy product legislation, including the publication of a blog highlighting the benefits of energy labelling for consumers.

We issued 48 press releases and numerous proactive statements and were contacted by journalists 417 times and gave 54 interviews. This led to over 13,300 quotes in the written press, including in top-tier media, a significant increase on 2024.

We posted 440 times on LinkedIn and 390 on BlueSky. By the end of 2025, we had 17,000 followers on LinkedIn and 3,100 on BlueSky.

We hosted nine in-person expert meetings with our members in 2025, bringing together 178 national expert participants across the full range of consumer policy issues, as well as Enforcement and Communications. This in addition to regular expert calls with members on various topics throughout the year.

BEUC staff spoke at a total of 214 public events across all our topics. We had various meetings with the European Commission: eight with Commissioners, three with Directors-General, and 145 with staff from a variety of departments that work on consumer-related topics. We organised public events on topics such as the digital euro, consumer policy in a changing world, and understanding what consumers need in the energy transition. On our blog – Consumer Corner – staff from the BEUC Secretariat or national consumer organisations gave their views in 14 posts. These included topics such as customs reform, AI, longer-lasting smartphones, the EU’s simplification agenda, telecoms, and more!

It is our policy to seek funding only in priority areas identified by our members as important for consumers. This funding can be either unrestricted (to support our core work) or tied to a specific project or programme. All potential funders are carefully vetted through our due diligence process to ensure that they align with our goals and do not threaten our integrity or independence.

Our work in 2025 was supported by the following grants and contracts:

This grant is received from the consumer strand of the Single Market Programme (Consumers), 2021-27.

• CLEAR-HP (Consumers Leading the EU’s Energy Ambition Response through uptake of Heat Pumps), 2023-2026
• Ecodesigned4LIFE (Ecodesigned 4 low Impact and For Efficiency), 2023-2026
• Consumer Law Ready (CLR), 2023-2026
• Participation in the EU Ecolabel Scheme (with European Environmental Bureau).

• Adessium Foundation
• Broad Reach Foundation via Tides Foundation
• ClimateWorks Foundation
• European AI and Society Fund
• European Central Bank (ECB)
• European Climate Foundation (ECF)
• European Environment & Health Initiative (EEHI) via Swiss Philanthropy Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds
• Healthy Food, Healthy Planet via a collaboration with the Eurogroup for Animals
• Karuna Foundation via Craigslist Fund
• KR Foundation
• Luminate
• Omidyar Network
• Open Philanthropy
• Open Society Foundations
• PEP Fund, Farmed Animal Funders

Our income in 2025 was €6,711,926. This includes:

• 35.5% - An EU operating grant from the consumer strand of the Single Market Programme 2021-27 to support our work on behalf of European consumers
• 26.8% - Membership fees from our members (independent consumer organisations)
• 31.4% - Foundation-funded projects
• 4.1% - EU institution-funded projects which we deliver following successful bid submissions to competitive open and limited calls for proposals
• 2.1% - Other income