On 23 July the European Commission published recent results of 2013 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard (Consumer Scoreboard: more action needed for a true single market for consumers). Pursuant to the new data 35% of EU citizens declared they were confident buying online from sellers in other EU countries. Unfortunately, still 7 out of 10 EU consumers do not know what to do if they receive products they did not order, and less than a third of traders is familiar with the law provisions with regards to returning defective goods for repair. The observed trend is an actual decrease in consumer trust, which seems to be matched by an increase in the use of redress measures. In the press release you may read about various measures that the Commission thinks about adopting in order to increase consumer protection and their confidence in cross-border transactions. One thing that caught my attention was an announcement of a study on guarantees in selected consumer markets to check compliance of national laws with the EU measures. Another interesting point was a remark on environmental impact of a good on consumers' purchasing decisions - 4 out of 10 consumers take that under consideration, which seems quite a significant number. Consumers who don't take green transactional decisions explain it by not wanting to pay a higher price, not having relevant information on the product or not trusting environmental claims made. Wednesday, 31 July 2013
9th Consumer Conditions Scoreboard
On 23 July the European Commission published recent results of 2013 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard (Consumer Scoreboard: more action needed for a true single market for consumers). Pursuant to the new data 35% of EU citizens declared they were confident buying online from sellers in other EU countries. Unfortunately, still 7 out of 10 EU consumers do not know what to do if they receive products they did not order, and less than a third of traders is familiar with the law provisions with regards to returning defective goods for repair. The observed trend is an actual decrease in consumer trust, which seems to be matched by an increase in the use of redress measures. In the press release you may read about various measures that the Commission thinks about adopting in order to increase consumer protection and their confidence in cross-border transactions. One thing that caught my attention was an announcement of a study on guarantees in selected consumer markets to check compliance of national laws with the EU measures. Another interesting point was a remark on environmental impact of a good on consumers' purchasing decisions - 4 out of 10 consumers take that under consideration, which seems quite a significant number. Consumers who don't take green transactional decisions explain it by not wanting to pay a higher price, not having relevant information on the product or not trusting environmental claims made. 
