| Happy Holidays! The year 2020 was definitely not a fun year for many consumers. But with the approval of COVID vaccine(s), there is light at the end of the tunnel. While my home country Germany is proud of being the birthplace of the first vaccine, patients will have to wait for its approval. Countries like the UK, the US, and Canada are already more advanced and have already begun vaccinating vulnerable patients. Furthermore, the European Commission sees the current crisis as an opportunity to centralize drug pricing and reimbursement decisions away from national governments. We see this as a threat to patient access and innovation in Europe. Fortunately, we were able to find 30 Members of the European Parliament from across the aisle to co-sign our letter to the European Commission opposing this so-called pharmaceutical strategy. |
 Launching a New Podcast! 🎧 Our Bill Wirtz was so impressed by David and Yaël’s work on the Consumer Choice Radio show that he launched ConsEUmer, a weekly podcast covering EU politics. Make sure to subscribe to ConsEUmer here: consumerchoicecenter.org/conseumer Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many other streaming services! |
 Covid-Friendly Protest in Brussels! While COVID did not allow us much in-person work this year, the CCC joined the World Vapers’ Alliance cardboard protest in front of the EU Parliament. Protesting 2020-style! |
 Vaping in California Success in California on vape flavor ban – the ban is delayed! You can find our coalition letter opposing the vape flavor ban here. |
 Is Facebook a Monopoly? And in times where social media is one of the few means of socially distanced communication, the CCC is fighting anti-consumer actions in US antitrust — Find Yael’s piece on why the FTC gets it wrong here. |
 Targeted Advertising Why banning or restricting targeted advertisement on both sides of the Atlantic is bad news for consumers. |
 12 Tips for Shopping Online Our Holiday Gift to You: 12 consumer tips during the festive season to shop safely online. |
 Canadian Plastics Ban In Canada, the Federal government has announced a new plastic ban and has labelled plastic as a schedule 1 toxin under CEPA. David Clement published two op-eds on this topic, one in the Financial Post in October and again in theToronto Sun in December. More to come on this hot issue! |
 Make the milk more affordable Supply Management – Our David Clement keeps fighting the battle against expensive dairy, poultry, and eggs in Canada. The Financial Post published his latest stance on this important consumer issue, and the Western Producer used his comments to directly challenge the government on their support of supply management. Several Members of Parliament were challenged by journalists after David got published #HOTSEAT |
 European Green Deal In The Parliament Magazine, Bill Wirtz asks how much the European Green Deal will cost consumers. Can we afford to pay more for electricity and daily consumption goods? A new impact assessment by the European Commission confirms our worst fears. |
 Pro Innovation in Agriculture in Italy Great news! A new pro-innovation agriculture amendment law was passed yesterday in the Italian parliament. In 2021, Italy will have its own impact assessment on the Farm to Fork strategy. #WIN |