Editorial

Shopping online is becoming increasingly popular with consumers worldwide for various reasons.

Most people today book their holiday flights and hotel accommodation via the internet, thereby saving time and money. They also increasingly buy their books, digital cameras and other electronic equipment online. These changing trends in the way we procure the goods and services that we need have prodded the EU Consumers Commissioner to take initiatives aimed at ensuring suppliers’ compliance with consumer protection legislation.

A recent Europe-wide investigation of bad practices adopted by various suppliers of electronic goods selling their ware online highlights the need for consumers to be more vigilant in defending their statutory rights. The investigation aimed at checking whether online suppliers of electronic goods were respecting the various EU directives aimed at protecting consumers.

The results were rather disappointing. Out of 369 websites investigated, 55 per cent were found to be breaching one or more of these directives. In the case of Malta, 10 websites were investigated, out of which seven were found to be resorting to practices that were not compliant with consumer protection laws.

The primary scope of this investigation is not punitive but corrective. But if those in breach of the directives fail to rectify their position in a reasonable time, they will be named publicly. Enforcement will then follow to ensure that consumers’ rights are safeguarded at all times.

The commitment of the EU to protect the interests of the small consumer is indeed admirable.

The breaches the study found to be most common included missing and incomplete information about the buyer’s rights, such as the condition to have a consumers’ two-year guarantee covering the product. Another problem was missing or incomplete details about the sellers, so that they could not be contacted if and when a problem should arise.

The letters sections of the press often reflect the frustration of consumers who feel they have been given a raw deal by certain suppliers of goods and services. This frustration becomes even more acute when a supplier has no identifiable physical location where one can go to argue one’s case.

Slowly but surely, consumer rights in Malta are beginning to be given the importance they deserve, both by the local Consumer and Competition Division of the Ministry of Finance, albeit very slowly, and by Maltese representatives in the European Parliament.

One hopes that the Achilles’ heel of this initiative will not again be enforcement. One can understand the reluctance of the EU to name those e-commerce operators that have been found abusing consumers’ rights. It is only fair they be given the chance to put things right before being named, provided, of course, they desist immediately from their bad practices. However, if for any reason enforcement of the necessary corrective action is not tackled with determination, consumers will once again feel cheated.

While the electronic goods market is one of the most significant e-shopping businesses, there are other markets that need to be addressed just as effectively. Such markets could include those relating to travel services and the selling of pharmaceuticals online.

As EU Consumers Commissioner Maglena Kuneva insisted this Europe-wide problem of consumers’ rights abuse needs a European solution. Consumers will follow closely.