- applicant authority
means the competent authority that makes a request for mutual assistance;
- competent authority
means any public authority established either at national, regional or local level and designated by a Member State as responsible for enforcing the Union laws that protect consumers’ interests;
- consumer
means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession;
- consumer complaint
means a statement, supported by reasonable evidence, that a trader has committed, is committing, or is likely to commit, an infringement of the Union laws that protect consumers’ interests;
- designated body
means a body having a legitimate interest in the cessation or prohibition of infringements of the Union laws that protect consumers’ interests which is designated by a Member State and instructed by a competent authority for the purpose of gathering the necessary information and to take the necessary enforcement measures available to that body under national law in order to bring about the cessation or prohibition of the infringement, and which is acting on behalf of that competent authority;
- harm to collective interests of consumers
means actual or potential harm to the interests of a number of consumers that are affected by intra-Union infringements, by widespread infringements or by widespread infringements with a Union dimension;
- infringements covered by this Regulation
means intra-Union infringements, widespread infringements and widespread infringements with a Union dimension;
- intra-Union infringement
means any act or omission contrary to Union laws that protect consumers’ interests that has done, does or is likely to do harm to the collective interests of consumers residing in a Member State other than the Member State in which:
- online interface
means any software, including a website, part of a website or an application, that is operated by or on behalf of a trader, and which serves to give consumers access to the trader’s goods or services;
- requested authority
means the competent authority that receives a request for mutual assistance;
- single liaison office
means the public authority designated by a Member State as responsible for coordinating the application of this Regulation within that Member State;
- sweeps
means concerted investigations of consumer markets through simultaneous coordinated control actions to check compliance with, or to detect infringements of, Union laws that protect consumers’ interests.
- trader
means any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, who is acting, including through any other person acting in his name or on his behalf, for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession;
- widespread infringement
means:
- widespread infringement with a Union dimension
means a widespread infringement that has done, does or is likely to do harm to the collective interests of consumers in at least two-thirds of the Member States, accounting, together, for at least two-thirds of the population of the Union;