Brussels, 22/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is about to open studies to examine in-depth the internet services market and the meat market, European Health Commissioner John Dalli announced on Friday 22 October. The fourth Consumer Markets Scoreboard published by the European Commission reveals that investments, real estate services and internet service provision are the three services markets most likely to be failing consumers across the EU. Among goods markets, apart from the meat market, second-hand cars and clothing and footwear scored lowest.
For the first time, the scoreboard ranks 50 different markets across the EU and Norway, accounting for 60% of household spending. 57% of European consumers feel that the markets are operating as they would want. Discontent is strongest in the area of investments, pensions and securities where 17% of consumers feel the market does not meet their expectations. The real estate sector and rail transport follow closely behind with 15% and 14% of consumers dissatisfied. Two markets in particular would seem to be of concern to the Commission: internet access and meat. Studies will be carried out over a period of 12 months to identify the problems underlying the poor results of these markets.
The internet market is the one where consumers said they encountered most problems (26%). The cost of the supply of access services vary widely between member states (for broadband services, the cheapest are in Greece and Slovenia, and the highest in Malta) with no reasonable justification, according to the Commission. The meat market, which is one of the lowest ranking markets for goods, accounts for a large proportion of household spending, the Commission points out. (A.By./transl.rt)