Steep increase in consumers’ confidence in public authorities

The Consumer Market Scoreboard for 2011, published by the European Commission this month, showed a steep increase in consumer confidence in Maltese public authorities.

While nearly all EU countries marked an increase in consumer trust in public authorities, Malta registered a marked improvement of seven per cent from 2009; 69 per cent of Maltese consumers have trust in public authorities to protect their rights, ranking higher than the EU27 average for 2010, which stands at 62 per cent.

This annual index measures consumer trust in authorities, NGOs, retailers, the effectiveness of handling and resolving disputes, and the quality of regulations. The scoreboard data are based on surveys of consumers and retailers as well as on statistical data such as income levels.

The Consumer Market Scoreboard’s main aim is to ensure that the EU single market is working for European consumers by offering them a greater choice of products and services, competitive prices, effective complaints handling and also to ensure that consumers have adequate support from national consumer institutions.

The scoreboard is published twice a year. The spring edition examines the progress in the integration of the EU retail market from the consumers’ perspective, while the autumn edition screens 50 markets across the EU with a view of identifying those markets which are not working well for consumers.

Malta has the second highest EU percentage (96 per cent) of retailers said they were well informed about consumer legislation. 32 per cent of Maltese consumers were satisfied with complaint handling by retailers. The percentage of Maltese consumers who felt they had reason to complain about a product or service they purchased but didn’t decreased by five per cent.

With regard to product safety, Maltese authorities checked the products of 63 per cent of retailers, the second highest percentage in the EU. Twenty-one per cent of retailers received consumer complaints on the safety of their products.

The March 2011 Consumer Scoreboard studied the cross-border commerce situation. There was only a one per cent increase in 2010 amounting to nine per cent, compared with eight per cent in 2009. This despite the fact that cross-border shopping has a number of benefits for consumers, such as lower prices and wider choice.

One of the major barriers to cross-border shopping is the way it is viewed by consumers. For instance, 62 per cent of consumers who decide not to do cross-border shopping are worried about fraud and scams; 59 per cent express concerns on what to do should a problem arise; and 49 per cent are put off by expected delivery problems.

It is, however, worth mentioning that those who have actually shopped cross-border have less of these concerns. In fact, the study suggests that consumers are much more confident in cross-border shopping once they have tried it.

Malta retains the second highest percentage – 35 per cent – of consumers who made at least one cross border purchase among EU countries in 2010.

While consumers are reluctant to shop cross-border, the situation is different with domestic e-commerce: 36 per cent of EU consumers having shopped online from national sellers in 2010. Consumers who have experienced both cross-border and domestic e-commerce think that ross-border shopping is as reliable or more as domestic e-commerce.

The problem appears to be a lack of information on cross-border advice, enforcement and redress mechanisms. Another major obstacle to cross-border shopping may also be attributed to suppliers. The proportion of retailers carrying out cross-border transactions fell by three per cent in 2010.

customer@timesofmalta.com

odette.vella@gov.mt

Ms Vella is senior information officer, Consumer and Competition Department.