With No-deal dangers buying from EU..

WITH the wall-to-wall coverage of Brexit it is hard to believe there is anything new to say.

But one of the topics that has not been talked to death is that of consumer rights.

There will be important changes if there is a no-deal Brexit. Here’s what we know so far:

Pre-brexit

While the UK remains in the EU your rights as a UK consumer will stay exactly as they are.

Your rights

Under the Withdrawal Agreement, there will be an implementation period, until December 2020. Your consumer protections will be the same as now, regardless of whether you are buying something in the UK or from a business in the EU.

Your no deal’ rights

If you buy goods in the UK you will continue to be protected by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the UK’S other consumer laws.

In this respect, the UK has some the best consumer protection laws in the world. But the situation will be very different for buying good from Europe if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

When goods are bought from a trader in an EU country and something goes wrong you will have to turn to the consumer protection laws of the seller’s country. It will be unlikely that you can use the UK courts, as you can now, to sue traders in the EU.

If you do turn to the law you will have to go to the courts local to the trader to enforce any judgment you obtain in the UK courts. All this will not be worth it.

Key EU laws

We follow many EU laws, most prominent is EU261 which covers flight delay compensation and denied boarding.

The good news is that the UK will initially adopt these EU laws and then later evaluate what we

Ashould keep, what we should improve and what we should ditch.

My advice

If you feel the need to purchase from a trader in the EU after Brexit, make sure you use your credit card.

By doing this you will be able to make what is called a section 75 claim to your credit card provider if anything goes wrong.

If successful, your card provider will refund your money and take up the fight direct with the trader, so this is a great protection/insurance policy.