Today, the European Commission presented its latest Consumer Markets Scoreboard. Compared to the last market scoreboard from 2014, these ratings show a generally improved market performance. Since 2008 the EU-Scoreboards for both consumer markets and consumer conditions are published biennially in alternating order to show how the single market works for European consumers. These ratings form the basis of decision-making and designing EU consumer policy. The essential results are:
- Consumers continue to evaluate goods markets better than services markets. However, so-called “fast moving retail markets” (non-alcoholic drinks, cereals and pasta) loose ground compared to the previous scoreboard and other goods markets.
- Despite their poor consumers’ evaluation, services markets display greater improvements than goods markets. Most positive developments occur in the area of financial services. More than before, consumers put great trust in their banks, private old-age pensions and investment funds. The European Commission argues that this can be related to legislative initiatives and enforcements by the European Commission related to bank accounts and mortgages.
- The electricity market, on the other hand, is not delivering fully to consumers. Additionally, in the telecommunications markets, consumers suffer the comparatively highest detriment. For instance, many consumers shy away from switching suppliers either due to worries about expected difficulties or because they already encountered problems in doing so.
Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, added on the scoreboard results: "We can see from this year’s Scoreboard that consumer-friendly rules, market reforms, as well as effective enforcement of consumer rules, have made consumers more confident in the markets. We must keep this encouraging trend going, especially for markets that still underperform, like telecoms and energy. That's why consumers are at the heart of the Commission's priority projects, like the Digital Single Market and the Energy Union."
Source: European Commission
More information, Factsheet and Consumer Markets Scoreboard