Today, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) published its Consumer Report 2019, which examines consumer satisfaction at the mid-term of the legislative period in Germany. It shows that consumer confidence in politics has been steadily declining over the past three years.
For this representative survey, a total of 1,501 German-speaking persons aged 14 and above were asked about their opinion on consumer protection in the summer of 2019.
These are the details:
-
For 90 percent of respondents, consumer protection contributes significantly to their personal safety and for another 89 percent politicians are the ones responsible for protecting consumer interests.
-
In contrast, only 17 percent said to have trust in politics regarding consumer protection — this figure has fallen by ten percentage points since 2017. Higher levels of trust exist primarily in the personal environment (85 percent) followed by consumer organizations (68 percent) and lawyers (55 percent).
-
On the issue of telephone and mobile services, 59 percent of respondents considered their interests to be well-protected, while only one third assumed appropriate protection regarding Internet and digitization.
Klaus Müller, CEO of vzbv, commented: "As consumer advocates, we are evaluating the mid-term review of the Grand Coalition with mixed feelings. While some consumer policy projects of the coalition agreement have been implemented, much remains to be done – especially in terms of urgent consumers issues. This is the only way for the Grand Coalition to regain consumer confidence. For the second half of the Grand Coalition, numerous consumer protection projects are on the agenda for the federal government to tackle in order to make life easier, safer and more affordable for consumers."
Source: vzbv
More information Informationen as well as an overview and details of the Consumer Report 2019