European Commission to strengthen consumer protection

Half of those who complained to the consumer protection authorities about a product or service they purchased were satisfied with the redress they were given, according to a preliminary study by the European Commission.

The study, held to gauge the consumer protection situation prevailing in EU member states and design the way forward, showed that over the past 12-months about 13 per cent of Maltese consumers had filed a complaint.

According to the study, the highest level of complaints in Malta, 16 per cent, was related to internet service providers, followed by the suppliers of water and electricity. Ten per cent of all complaints in this last category involved Enemalta and nine per cent referred to the Water Services Corporation.

Asked about whether they felt well protected through the existing consumer protection structures, 54 per cent answered positively and 65 per cent said they trust the public authorities to protect their consumer rights.

In order to continue strengthening the sector, European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva yesterday announced the launch of the new Consumer Market Watch process which investigates how markets in various sectors of the economy perform from a consumer perspective.

There will be two steps to the new process.

The first is a comprehensive screening of retail markets against five key consumer indicators - prices, complaints, switching rates, satisfaction and safety - in order to establish patterns that could indicate market malfunctioning.

These irregularities, which may be indicative of practices that distort consumer choice and hinder competition at the retail level, can then trigger the second phase of the process, an in-depth, targeted consumer market investigation and corrective actions.

Ms Kuneva said that the far-reaching new Consumer Market Watch process also benchmarks the strength of the consumer environment in different member states and the degree of integration of the retail internal market.

The first preliminary screening results underscore the lack of comprehensive, EU wide comparable consumer data in key areas.

"Compiling this data is a major task for consumer policy in the coming years," Ms Kuneva said.