Action Grants of Exceptional Utility for Co-operation Between National Authorities responsible for Enforcement of Consumer Protection Law

Deadline: 9-Sep-21

The European Commission (EC) is pleased to launch the call for proposals for action grants and action grants of exceptional utility for co-operation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection law.

Themes & Priorities

The action grants defined on the basis of the call for proposals can support a wide range of activities for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, such as:

Implementation of the minimum investigation and enforcement powers, in particular activities linked to the exchange of good practices as regards the power to carry out mystery shopping, to remove content or to restrict access to an online interface, or to trace financial and data flows. Implementation and good practices exchange as regards the external alert mechanism of the CPC Regulation, in particular, activities that complement5 the joint tools for analysing consumer complaints across the EU,
staff training, including activities for knowledge acquisition and sharing on eenforcement techniques to prepare for the deployment of innovative e-tools to strengthen national authorities’ capacity to tackle illegal online commercial practices by the Commission (i.e. “EU-level e-Lab”),
creation of online interfaces, e-enforcement and monitoring tools that complement the deployment of innovative e-tools to strengthen national authorities’ capacity to tackle illegal online commercial practices,
legal studies regarding the application of consumer law provisions in a specific context, notably with regard to new business models in the green or digital economy,
sector inquiries of specific business sectors and surveys of retailers on practices that may infringe EU consumer law,
networking tools, including workshops, for example to facilitate the cooperation with other public authorities within Member States and other enforcement capacities, including purchase of equipment and hard- or software for digital investigations and for product testing.

Funding Information

The available budget for this call is EUR 1 000 000.

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be on the date of the submission of the proposal, one of the following entities:

Entities notified to the Commission of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394:
- competent authorities,
- single liaison offices,
- designated bodies,
- entities issuing external alerts of the Regulation (EU) 2017/2394;
Other public authorities’ for the purpose of assisting competent authorities at their request in the context of the proposed activity of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394.
The entities should be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- non-EU countries:
  - EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (participating countries).