A new report by the EU Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Meglena Kuneva, sheds light on the difficulties of cross-border shopping.
A vast mystery shopping exercise was carried out across Europe: shoppers tried to purchase a range of 100 popular products and the results were revealing. The research found that:
• 60% of cross border transactions could not be completed by consumers because the trader did not ship the product to their country or did not offer adequate means for cross border payment.
• In 13 countries out of 27 and for at least half of all product searches, consumers were able to find an offer in another EU country which was at least 10% cheaper than the best domestic offer.
• Shoppers in 13 EU countries could not find domestic online offers for at least 50% of the products which they searched for, but found them in another EU country.
Meglena Kuneva, Commission for Consumer Affairs notes in a recent speech that:
“As we stand today, we cannot shop cross-border online within the EU. There is no European retail market online, but instead 27 inefficient mini-markets. We have the technology for a big market but not the trade. And this is generating a lot of frustration among European citizens who expect and deserve better”
In short, the report shows that cross border internet trade is often the only way consumers can buy the products they want at the prices they want. But too often cross border trade is hampered by the patchwork of different laws that exist across the EU and other online trade barriers.
It’s now time for the EU to tackle some of the problems highlighted by Kuneva’s report and encourage both online businesses and consumers to call for fairer online retailing by adopting a set of EU-wide consumer protection rules and taking action against online trade barriers.
This is exactly what we’re calling for, and 750,000 Europeans have already supported our call for free trade on the Internet. If you want a better, fairer deal for consumers, why don’t you sign up to join our Consumer Choice campaign?
Andrew Laidlaw 13.11.09 12:11
Well I can understand in some respects that some seller not wanting to post to sertain countrys due to that perticular seller having a lot of people who default on paying for goods or claim that the item was lost/dammaged in the post regardless if the item/s were delivered in good condition, dammaged or genually lost.
Fortunetly I’m only had a couple of non-payers from here in the uk.
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[...] Kuneva, European Commissioner for consumer affairs who recently revealed the results of mystery shopping exercise carried out across Europe has just published her blueprint for Consumer Policy in [...]
Francis 21.11.09 11:11
It’s not just about the seller who has to be willing to ship to countries, but also banks charging crazy fees for international payments (that are very slow), expensive and slow shipping and so on…
keith brenkley 23.11.09 08:11
Well here we go again,with the EU coming in with their mad rules.I live in the UK,vote at every election and for what,to give the EU dictatorship on what rules are to be followed.Why bother voting,and if the EU get their way I will not be paying top notch cash for a Brand name when I can get it off ebay for a fraction of the price,and finally who owns the INTERNET,it is definately not the EU or anyone else that is why I agree for it to be policed but I will not be told by a bunch of ageing morons where and what I can buy and for what price.