Consumers are actively contributing to the effective implementation of consumer policy and consumer friendly legislation through their notifications and cues transmitted through the urgent warning network of the German market watchdogs.
This form of market observation from the consumers' perspective entails the following details:
-
Over the past four years, market watchdogs have identified roughly 45,000 irregularities from more than 2.6 million consumer indications gathered from consumer association centers as well as online at marktwaechter.de.
-
Market watchdogs receive more than 300 notifications on a weekly basis pointing towards legal loopholes and scam attempts in the areas of insurance, finance, digitization or energy.
-
Thanks to the urgent warning network, legal gaps for instance regarding fake online shops, ticket fraud and paid online reviews were already identified and closed.
Klaus Müller, Director of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), said: "The market watchdogs are successfully monitoring the market from the consumers' point of view and have shed a light on consumer problems for four consecutive years. This evidence-based market monitoring with consumers' eyes increases the ability to act for German consumer protection making it faster and more effective."
Source: vzbv market watchdogs
More information