The trust of Maltese consumers in public authorities to protect their rights increased to 69 per cent last year, seven per cent more than in 2009, according to the Consumer Market Scoreboard for March released today by the European Commission.

The rate was seven per cent higher than the EU27 average.

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.

The March 2011 Consumer Scoreboard shows that the Consumer Conditions Index has rebounded in almost all members states after the sharp fall in 2009. Malta’s index has also experienced an increase from 54 in 2009 to 58 in 2010.

The Consumer Conditions Index is defined by factors such as the effectiveness of resolving disputes and handling complaints, consumer trust in authorities, retailers, advertisers and consumer organisations, and the quality of regulations.

Malta has the second highest EU percentage (96 per cent) of retailers who answered that 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 a reason to complain about a product or service they purchased but didn’t, decreased by five per cent.

With regards to product safety, Maltese authorities checked the products of 63 per cent of retailers, the second highest percentage in the EU. As many as 21 per cent of retailers received consumer complaints on the safety of their products.

Another matter to be highlighted is the percentage of Maltese consumers whose purchases were influenced by their environmental impact which rates at 48 per cent, compared to the 28 per cent of the EU27 average.

The March 2011 Consumer Scoreboard also studied the cross-border commerce situation. The proportion of consumers shopping across borders within the EU, both online and offline, has grown only by one per cent from 29 per cent in 2009 to 30 per cent in 2010. The proportion of retailers carrying out cross-border transactions (both online and offline) fell by three per cent.

The scoreboard has detected continuous growth in e-commerce, with 40 per cent of EU consumers having ordered goods or services in 2010, an increase of three per cent on 2009.

Malta retained the second highest percentage (35 per cent) of consumers making at least one cross border purchase among EU countries in 2010.