While overall trust in the markets has followed a positive trend in Europe since 2010, services are still a weak point, according to the 2018 Consumer Markets Scoreboard published by the European Commission on Friday 12 October.
The scoreboard sounds out European consumer perception of the functioning of 40 goods and services sectors in the EU in the light of five indicators: comparability of offers, confidence in respect of consumer projection rules, meeting expectations, options for selecting a retailer/supplier, seriousness of damages suffered in the event of problems.
It shows that only 53% of consumers trust that businesses in the services sectors comply with consumer rules. For goods, the figure is slightly higher at 59%. Only 38% of consumers trust that real estate service providers comply with consumer protection rules and 36% of consumers do so for the second hand car sector.
Telecoms, financial services and utilities (water, gas, electricity, and postal services) remain particularly problematic areas for consumers in most EU member states, showing no improvement on 2016 (see EUROPE 11616).
Internet provision and mobile telephone services are still the most problematic for consumers, with 20.3% and 17.5% having faced problems in these sectors respectively in the past year. Other areas mentioned by at least 10% of consumers include: TV subscriptions, fixed telephony, sales of ICT and electronic goods, train and urban transports, second hand cars, real estate, postal services, new cars, car rental and car repair services.
Financial services are the sector in which consumers suffer the greatest damage in terms of financial loss or waste of time in the event of problems. At least 35% of consumers reported high levels of detriment in home insurance, mortgages, loans, electricity and water services.
The greatest improvements in the way the markets function were observed in Eastern Europe, confirming the slow narrowing of the gap between East and West. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)