Looking for legal support?

For cross-border consumer questions or complaints, the European Consumer Centre is the right place to turn to.

Do you have all the necessary information and documents at hand? We will then direct you to the complaints form.

• Step 1: check whether your question or request falls within ECC Belgium’s responsibility
• Step 2: review the information and documents required, and the format needed

Step 1 : which requests can ECC Belgium assist with?

ECC Belgium can look into your request only if:

• Your question or dispute concerns a cross-border consumer purchase
• You made this purchase as a consumer residing in Belgium
• The purchase was made from a professional trader established in another EU country, Iceland or Norway. We collaborate with a partner organisation in the United Kingdom.

This means we cannot handle your request if:

• Your problem does not concern a consumer purchase
• The purchase was made in the name of a business (e.g. with your VAT number), a non-profit organisation, or in the course of your professional activity (B2B)
• You are a lawyer or legal representative acting on behalf of a third-party consumer. You may ask your client to submit the complaint personally, after which we will contact them directly
• The billing address on the order confirmation is not in Belgium. If you live in another EU country, please contact the ECC in your country of residence
• You live in Belgium and made your purchase from a Belgian professional trader. Consult Consumer Connect to see which service can assist you
• Your purchase was made from a private individual (C2C) or from a trader established outside the EU

Step 2: which information and documents does ECC Belgium need, and in what format?

To handle your request effectively, ECC Belgium’s legal team requires a clear, complete file.

The complaints form asks for specific information about your case, including:

• Your contact details: please double-check your email address, as this will be used for follow-up
• A clear summary of your complaint, including the contract reference and the dates of the relevant events
• The solution you are seeking

We also require the following documents:

• The order or booking confirmation, or the purchase invoice
• Proof of payment
• The correspondence you have exchanged with the trader, merged into one document in chronological order
• Your bank details (bank name, IBAN and BIC codes) if you are requesting a refund
• Avoid using screenshots, as they are often incomplete and difficult to process

To ensure an efficient analysis of your case, we ask you to limit the number of attachments (max. 8), keep the number of pages per attachment reasonable, and clearly name each document.

Important for follow-up:

Given the large number of cases we receive, you can help us by:

• Strictly following the instructions
• Not submitting a complaint if you are already receiving assistance from another service
• Keeping us informed of any developments in your case

All follow-up after submitting the form must be done by replying to the acknowledgement of receipt, or to any other email from us, without changing the subject line. The subject line of each email will always begin with your case number (e.g. ECCBE-123456). For urgent cases, our legal team can be reached by phone on weekday mornings.

Please read carefully what you can expect from our services and falls outside our scope.

Technical issues with the form? Pay close attention to any error messages displayed in red and correct them.

Once your complaint or question has been successfully submitted, we will do our best to respond within 14 business days. For more complex cases, the waiting time may be up to 2 months.

Would you like to know more? Please check out our Quality Charter and our Privacy Policy.