25 The single market: the spring 2010
consumer scoreboard
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8202/10
SEC(10) 385
| Commission staff working document: Consumers at home in the Internal Market. Monitoring the integration of the retail Internal market and benchmarking the consumer environment in Member States
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 29 March 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 7 April 2010
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| Department | Business, Innovation and Skills
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 26 May 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
25.1 In January 2008, the Commission issued a Communication announcing
its intention to publish "consumer scoreboards" based
on indicators which would help identify which parts of the internal
market are not functioning well for consumers.[104]
25.2 The Commission's first Consumer Markets Scoreboard was published
in January 2008 and the second a year later.[105]
In future, the Commission will publish two scoreboards a year:
one in spring and the other in the autumn.
The spring 2010 Scoreboard
25.3 The spring 2010 Scoreboard has three chapters:
- an introduction and executive summary;
- a chapter (and supporting statistics) on progress
towards an EU-wide single retail market; and
- a chapter (and supporting statistics) on the
extent to which consumers in each Member State are satisfied with
their national arrangements for the handling of complaints; rights
of redress; enforcement of consumer protection legislation; and
product safety.
25.4 The Scoreboard shows that there has been little
growth in the proportion of consumers and retailers conducting
cross-border transactions. For example:
- in 2009, 29% of EU consumers
made at least one cross-border purchase — the corresponding
figure for 2008 was 25% and for 2006 it was 26%;
- 25% of EU retailers sold to at least one customer
in another EU country in 2009, compared to 20% in 2008 and 29%
in 2006;
- in 2009, 34% of EU consumers bought goods or
services online from suppliers in their home Member States, but
only 8% placed cross-border orders online; and
- many online suppliers are not prepared to sell
to consumers in other Member States.
However, in the UK 32% of consumers made at least
one cross-border online purchase in 2009 and 25% of UK retailers
made at least one online sale to a customer in another EU country.
25.5 The Scoreboard's statistics
on consumer satisfaction in the UK indicate that, for example:
- 78% of consumers feel adequately
protected by existing consumer protection measures (the highest
proportion in the EU);
- 78% of consumers trust suppliers to respect their
consumer rights (the highest proportion in the EU);
- 70% of consumers trust public authorities to
protect their consumer rights (fourth highest in the EU);
- the UK has the highest switching rate in the
EU (for example, 33% of consumers have changed their electricity
service provider); and
- only 8.9% of UK consumers, and 5.1% of UK retailers,
believe that a significant number of products are unsafe (the
EU 27 average is 24.8% of consumers and 16.3% of retailers).
25.6 The Scoreboard's main conclusions are that:
- most consumers in the EU still
buy the goods and services they require from suppliers located
in their home Member State;
- in order to gain the benefits of a true EU-wide
internal retail market, sustained effort is required to break
down the barriers to cross-border retail purchasing and, in particular,
obstacles to the development of e-commerce across national borders;
and
- there are substantial differences in customer
satisfaction across the EU and Member States should do more to
identify and remove the causes of dissatisfaction.
The Government's view
25.7 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 26 May, the
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Business,
Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey) tells us that the spring
2010 Scoreboard has no direct policy implications for the UK.
25.8 The statistics in the Scoreboard show that the
UK has been performing well in the retail market. In particular,
the data on the proportion of consumers who feel adequately protected
by existing measures and who trust in the ability of third parties
to protect the rights of consumer are very encouraging. But there
remains room for improvement. For example, UK retailers were less
well informed than consumers about consumer rights and the procedures
for complaints and redress. In autumn 2009, the previous Government
made resources available to help retail businesses provide training
for their staff to improve their understanding of consumer rights.
It is too soon, however, to say to what extent this has improved
retailers' awareness of consumer protection legislation.
Conclusion
25.9 In our view, the spring 2010 Scoreboard contains
useful indicators for the Commission and Member States about the
further action needed to develop the internal market and improve
consumer satisfaction. It makes no proposals and is for information
and we see no need to keep it under scrutiny. We draw the document
to the attention of the House because of the importance of the
subject and the useful comparative data the scoreboard contains.
104 (29422) 5942/08: see HC 16-xiv (2007-08), chapter
7 (5 March 2008). Back
105
(30420) 6066/09: see HC 19-viii (2008-09), chapter 10 (25 February
2009) Back
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