`Consumer Group Prepares for Class Action in Wake of EVOO Fraud Scandal - Olive Oil Times

Consumer Group Prepares for Class Action in Wake of EVOO Fraud Scandal

By Gaynor Selby
Dec. 10, 2015 12:09 UTC

The prin­ci­ple con­sumer rights orga­ni­za­tion in Italy is encour­ag­ing shop­pers who feel duped by buy­ing oil olive from one of the major, mostly Spanish-owned brand names cur­rently embroiled in the fake’ EVOO con­tro­versy, to seek com­pen­sa­tion.

The dam­age caused by this deceit is enor­mous, not just for con­sumers but also for the entire coun­try and for the image of prod­ucts that are made in Italy.- Rosario Trefiletti, Federconsumatori

The con­sumer group Codacon — Coordination of asso­ci­a­tions for the defence of the envi­ron­ment and the rights of users and con­sumers — is steer­ing con­sumers towards an online form cur­rently pub­lished on its web­site.

It says peo­ple who have bought lower qual­ity oil should be enti­tled to com­pen­sa­tion and offers to sup­port con­sumers who reg­is­ter on the site for free.

The Codacon ini­tia­tive said that if the alleged offences are proven, con­sumers have been mis­led and deceived.

Seven com­pa­nies are involved in an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into lower qual­ity olive oil being passed off as extra vir­gin.

The story is being widely reported in the Italian press, while in the U.K. national news­pa­per, The Telegraph, recently ran an arti­cle which included com­ments from Rosario Trefiletti, pres­i­dent of another con­sumer asso­ci­a­tion in Italy, Federconsumatori.

The dam­age caused by this deceit is enor­mous, not just for con­sumers but also for the entire coun­try and for the image of prod­ucts that are made in Italy,” he was quoted as say­ing.



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