According to a Eurobarometer survey report published on 11 April on the occasion of the 2011 European Consumer Summit, less than 50% of EU consumers surveyed felt confident, knowledgeable and protected as consumers. Empowered consumers find it easy to identify the best offer, know their rights and seek redress when things go wrong. Vulnerable consumers find it hard to understand the choices they face, don't know their rights, suffer more problems and are unwilling to act when things go wrong.
-What is consumer empowerment?
Consumer empowerment is about consumers knowing their rights, being aware of the available redress options, and showing willingness to take action when things go wrong.
Consumer empowerment is a combination of the skills, knowledge and assertiveness of consumers themselves and the protection, rules and institutions designed to support them play their part. It therefore depends not only on good cognitive skills but also on knowledge of consumer rights and information, effective non-governmental organisations and public authorities and simple and accessible means of redress.
The survey was carried out in 2010 in 29 countries (EU27, Iceland and Norway), with 56,471 consumers, using 70 questions covering three main dimensions of empowerment: consumer skills; consumer awareness of their rights; consumer assertiveness.
Results show that consumer awareness and skills are worryingly low. However, there is a considerable potential to empower consumers and thereby to improve consumer welfare and reduce consumer detriment. The internet and the media have a key role to play in consumer empowerment, with more than 38% of consumers using the internet to compare products and given the media's capacity to reach citizens directly.
The EU Commissioner for Health & Consumer Policy John Dalli said: "Worrying results indicate that a significant number of consumers are potentially vulnerable to frauds, scams, pressure selling, and do not know they can re-consider their choices and avoid unnecessary purchases. If consumers cannot easily make choices and avoid harm, not only do they suffer but so do the innovative, honest businesses which drive growth".
-Key findings:
Consumers’ detriment and redressConsumer detriment is estimated at 0.4% of EU GDP. More than one in five Europeans interviewed had encountered a problem for which they had cause for complaint. The less educated and elderly are more reluctant to seek redress, although they are no less likely to have problems.
Consumers’ skillsIn terms of numerical skills, consumers struggle with simple calculations: only 45% could answer three consumer related questions correctly. In terms of financial skills, two out of ten people interviewed were not able to choose the cheapest option when buying a flat screen TV. Only 58% could correctly read an ingredients label and 18% could not identify the best-before date. Only 2% of consumers recognised five common public information logos. 33% of consumers thought that the CE mark meant “made in Europe”, and only 25% correctly knew it meant that the product “complies with EU legislation”.
Consumers’ knowledge of their rightsA majority of consumers were not aware of their fundamental rights such as the right to have a faulty product repaired, replaced or reimbursed 24 months after purchase, the right to cancel an online financial services contract within 14 days if they change their mind or find a better offer, or similarly, the right to cancel a contract with a doorstep salesman.
“These results will have to be taken into account if we want to help consumers in an increasingly complex market and in the face of information overload”, Commissioner Dalli said. The aim of this Eurobarometer study was indeed to gain knowledge of consumer’s capacities, awareness and assertiveness in order to better design and develop policies, at both EU and national level that take account of real behaviour.
**The full text of the Eurobarometer survey report is available at:http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm
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