The Luxembourg Institute for Regulation (ILR) received 131 requests for mediation last year.

The ILR supervises the fair functioning of the Luxembourgish market in the domains of electronic communication, electricity, natural gas, postal services, transport and radio frequencies. The mediation requests it receives give a good overview of the main issues consumers are concerned with in these areas.

Many complaints about premium texts

Last year, many complaints centred around premium SMS messages, which are charged at higher rates. These are often related to mobile games and can cost up to three euros per message to receive.

They can be triggered by visiting a website with your phone, often agreeing to something without noticing. They generally come from numbers starting with 67.

"These are becoming more and more frequent. At the end of the month you get a phone bill of 5, 10, 50, 100 or 300 euros. Many people are not even aware they enabled such a service," says Luc Tappela, director of the ILR.

The message to consumers is clear: make sure you know what you agree to, do not simply click "OK" everywhere. If you do receive such messages, don't ignore them, but reply "STOP" to avoid further charges. On the website stopsms.lu you can check if your phone number is registered for any such services.

International shipments more expensive

Most residents with ties to the UK or the US will have noticed that getting shipments from outside the EU has become pricier - not being helped by Brexit. Previously, anything received under 22 euros from non-EU countries was VAT exempt, but that is no longer the case. Add to this the administrative fees charged by courier services, and you can easily end up paying more for delivery than the item itself.

A service to bring consumers and operators together

The ILR generally deals with bills that may contain errors or where services are being charged that the consumer thought would be free. This also includes changes to a contract which may then be reflected in the invoice.

"It allows the consumer to get together with the operator", says Ajla Mumdzic from their legal service. "The consumer may have an issue or can't understand certain details and did not get the right response from the operator. Mediation allows them to have an exchange where everyone can explain their viewpoint."

In 80% of cases, the ILR's mediation service finds a solution. It is freely available to everyone and can be requested online.