The EU recently published the 2017 edition of the Consumer Conditions Scoreboard. This scoreboard monitors and tracks progress on the EU Digital Single Market from a consumer’s perspective, showing a dramatic increase of EU consumer trust in online shopping, especially cross border shopping within the EU.

While the scoreboard marked an increase in trust of 12.4 percentage points for online purchases from retailers within the same country, amounting to 72.4 per cent of EU consumers, an impressive increase of 21.1 percentage points was marked for cross-border purchases within the EU.

For the first time, more than half of consumers (57.8 per cent) say they feel confident about purchasing online goods and services from traders established in another EU country.

Despite these encouraging figures, the scoreboard reports important obstacles preventing e-commerce from developing its full potential. One of these obstacles is the retailers’ reluctance to sell online to consumers in other EU countries.

Retailers are mainly discouraged by a higher risk of fraud and differences in national tax regulations, followed by differences in national contract law and differences in national consumer protection rules.

The 2017 Scoreboard reports that consumer conditions are generally better in northern and western EU countries than in eastern and southern ones. Consumer conditions focus on three main elements: knowledge and trust, compliance and enforcement and complaints and dispute resolution.

The 2017 edition’s findings show that EU consumers are becoming increasingly aware of their rights and are more confident that these rights are being protected. When asked about the following rights:

• the right to return a product bought at distance within 14 days without giving any reason;

• the right to replacement and/or repair of faulty products; and

• the right to neither pay nor return unsolicited products, there was a 3.6 percentage point increase in EU consumers who answered all three questions correctly. Raising awareness about consumer rights remains a priority, as the proportion of those who got all three answers right is still quite low (12.6 per cent).

More than half of consumers say they feel confident about purchasing online goods

Malta is one of those EU countries that marked an increase in consumer confidence. This rating means that consumers are able to make informed choices and maximise their welfare. It also means that consumer rights are well-known and respected, and that problems can be easily solved.

An 8.2 percentage point increase was also noted when EU consumers were asked about their trust in companies, public authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to respect and protect their rights. As in the previous scoreboard, 69 per cent of Maltese consumers reported to have trust in public authorities to protect their rights as consumers. This significant percentage, which is above the EU average, acknowledges the good work carried out by local authorities.

The scoreboard also revealed that EU retailers are not always aware of their legal obligations towards consumers and this edition’s statistics show that the retailers’ knowledge of consumer rights was slightly lower than two years ago.

With regard to compliance and enforcement, the 2017 Scoreboard reports that EU retailers have improved their compliance with consumer rules, with fewer consumers experiencing unfair commercial practices.

Furthermore, fewer EU consumers reported having encountered a problem worth complaining about. In fact only 20 per cent of EU consumers felt the need to report a problem. However, an increase was marked in the number of consumers who were satisfied with how their complaint was dealt with. It is worth noting that a third of consumers who said they encountered a problem decided not to complain about it.

Consumers’ trust in redress mechanisms remains moderate but has increased. 46.8 per cent of EU consumers have trust in redress mechanisms, marking an increase of over six percentage points compared with the previous scoreboard. In 2016 the adoption of the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Directive ensured that all European consumers and retailers have access to ADR entities to settle their contractual disputes. This directive also ensures that these entities meet certain quality criteria. In addition, the new online dispute platform started operating in February of 2016 – offering easy online access to ADR entities for disputes over online transactions.

More than 250 entities from 24 Member States were registered on the platform by the end of 2016 and this number keeps growing as more entities are notified. In its first year, over 24,000 consumer complaints were lodged on the platform. More than a third of complaints concerned cross-border purchases within the EU.

odette.vella@mccaa.org.mt

Odette Vella is director, Information, Education and Research Directorate, Office for Consumer Affairs, Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority.