Maltese consumers are very dissatisfied with the quality of service provided by Enemalta, Water Services Corporation and public transport.

The services offered by Maltese lawyers, notaries and accountants also leave much to be desired, according to an EU consumer market scoreboard, published in Brussels.

The scoreboard is based on a market monitoring survey measuring the reported opinions of consumers having recent purchasing experience in each market.

For the first time, it provides data for 50 consumer markets, accounting for more than 60 per cent of the consumer household budget.

The rankings, given by consumers to different goods and services, are based on a set of different criteria that include: the ease of comparing goods and services; consumers’ trust in retailers; problems and complaints; overall satisfaction and expectations; and ease of switching and prices.

According to the European Commission, the purpose of the scoreboard is to identify markets that may be underperforming for consumers. “This provides crucial evidence for policy follow-up and feeds into the Commission’s broader work monitoring the function of the single market,” the study says.

Malta’s scoreboard strikes a number of differences to the experiences reported by other EU consumers.

While on average EU consumers complained mostly about banking, real estate and internet services, these obtained good rankings among 250 Maltese customers interviewed.

The Maltese emerged to be most satisfied with the market of books, magazines and newspapers, followed by the meat and alcoholic beverages markets. Airline services also obtained a very good ranking among the Maltese. On the other hand, the problem consumers had with certain markets, particularly the utilities sector, was highlighted in various EU studies. The most recent is an EU survey released earlier this week in which the overwhelming majority of Maltese identified the electricity sector as one the most problematic the island is facing due to lack of competition. The other sector identified was the pharmaceutical sector.

Commenting on the results of the latest scoreboard, the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, John Dalli said it helped the Commission to pinpoint where the single market was not delivering.

“Our next step will be to study more in-depth two markets – internet service provision and meat – and to encourage national authorities to use these results in their work,” Mr Dalli said.