The UK European Consumer Centre (ECC) is producing a handy guide to ensure football fans know their rights if they are travelling to next month’s FIFA World Cup in Germany.

The guide, which can be downloaded for free from the UK ECC website - euroconsumer.org.uk - is aimed at helping the estimated 100,000 England fans who will be going to the World Cup to follow England this summer.

Many of those going will not be familiar with how consumer law and public services work in Germany, and the guide seeks to set out details in an easy to understand format.

Useful information contained in the guide includes:

á    information on consumer rights when shopping in Germany;

á    details on how to get the cheapest tickets if travelling to the match by public transport;

á    facts on legal rights when booking or cancelling a hotel reservation;

á    how to access medical services and other urgent help.

The UK ECC is the UK contact point for people with a consumer problem that crosses national boundaries within the European Union. It handled more than £1m worth of cross-border European consumer problems in the last year.

Ruth Bamford, Director of the UK ECC, said: “Last year, Citizens Advice Euroconsumer helped almost 2,000 people with consumer and legal problems they encountered while on holiday in Europe. So many of these people could have been helped to avoid problems, if only they had known more beforehand about how things work in the country they were visiting. That’s why we have put together this guide.

“The main aim is to ensure that people going to the World Cup are well informed about how to avoid any consumer or legal problems. We want England fans to have nothing more to worry about, while in Germany, than the fitness of Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.”

The guide is also being published by other national European Consumer Centres in a variety of European languages.

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