Consumer confidence in public regulators, authorities increases to 69%

In 2010, the trust of Maltese consumers in public authorities to protect their rights has increased to 69%, a marked improvement of 7% from 2009. Confidence in Maltese public authorities is higher than the EU27 average for 2010 which stands at 62%.

These statistics transpire from the Consumer Market Scoreboard for March 2011 released today by the European Commission.

The Consumer Market Scoreboard’s main aim is to ensure that the EU single market is working for European consumers by offering them a greater choice of products and services, competitive prices, effective complaints handling and also to ensure that consumers have adequate support from national consumer institutions.

The Scoreboard is published twice a year. The Spring Edition examines the progress in the integration of the EU retail market from the consumers’ perspective, while the Autumn Edition screens 50 markets across the EU with a view of identifying those markets which are not working well for consumers.

The March 2011 Consumer Scoreboard shows that the Consumer Conditions Index has rebounded in almost all members states after the sharp fall in 2009.  Malta’s index has also experienced an increase from 54 in 2009 to 58 in 2010.  The Consumer Conditions Index is defined by factors such as the effectiveness of resolving disputes and handling complaints, consumer trust in authorities, retailers, advertisers and consumer organisations, and the quality of regulations.

Malta has the second highest EU percentage (96%) of retailers who answered that they were well informed about consumer legislation. 32% of Maltese consumers were satisfied with complaint handling by retailers.  The percentage of Maltese consumers who felt they had a reason to complain about a product or service they purchased but didn’t, decreased by 5%.

With regards to product safety, Maltese authorities checked the products of 63% of retailers, the second highest percentage in the EU. As many as 21% of retailers received consumer complaints on the safety of their products.

Another matter to be highlighted is the percentage of Maltese consumers whose purchases were influenced by their environmental impact which rates at 48%, compared to the 28% of the EU27 average.

The March 2011 Consumer Scoreboard also studied the cross-border commerce situation. The proportion of consumers shopping across borders within the EU, both online and offline, has grown only by 1%, from 29% in 2009 to 30% in 2010.  On the other hand, the proportion of retailers carrying out cross-border transactions (both online and offline) actually fell by 3% in 2010.  

When it comes to e-commerce the Scoreboard has detected continuous growth, with 40% of EU consumers having ordered goods or services in 2010, and which translates into an increase of 3% from 2009.  This trend suggests that the targets set by the Digital Agenda of having 50% of EU consumers shopping online by 2015 remains realistic. 

Statistics also show that 36% of European consumers bought goods or services from national sellers (domestic e-commerce) and only 9% ordered from elsewhere in the EU (cross-border e-commerce).  This shows that there is a growing gap between domestic and cross-border online purchases.

Small countries like Malta and Luxembourg are more likely to make cross-border shopping. In fact Malta retains the 2^nd highest percentage (35%) of consumers making at least 1 cross border purchase among EU countries in 2010.