1 Activities of Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection Evidence based policy of consumer protection University of Zurich, 24 November 2007.

Slides:



Advertisements
Similar presentations
A European Single Market for All Jacqueline Minor, Director, Horizontal Policy Development, Directorate General For the Internal Market and Services European.
Advertisements

A Single European Market for all ELENA GRECH. The Single Market: a success story : approx billion Euros in value added 2.75 million extra.
Together. Free your energies How open and collaborative are public administrations in Europe? A benchmarking perspective October 2011.
Acquire foundational knowledge of marketing-information management to understand its nature and scope Marketing Indicator 1.05.
Effective consumer empowerment & protection in liberalised electricity & gas markets in Europe Kyriakos Gialoglou, European Commission, Consumer Affairs.
1 THE UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES DIRECTIVE Ankara, 7 December 2009 Karine Maillard Consumer contract and marketing law Unit B2 – Consumer contract and.
Transposition of Consumer Rights ERGEG Monitoring Report Christina Veigl-Guthann, ERGEG Task Force Chair.
© 2009 South-Western, Cengage LearningMARKETING 1 Chapter 2 SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE MARKETING 2-1The Impact of Marketing 2-2Criticisms of Marketing 2-3Increasing.
André Piérard, ERGEG Project Leader on Complaints Citizens’ Energy Forum, London, September 2009 Draft advice on Customer Complaint Handling, Reporting.
Health and Consumers Health and Consumers 1 Commission’s expectations to MS’ structures of enforcement Enforcement of European Animal Welfare related legislation.
EU environmental policy. Themes Climate change Biodiversity Environmental health Sustainable development.
FOODIMA Food Industry Dynamics and Methodological Advances Contract No Priority 8.1 B1.1 Sustainable Management of Europe’s Natural Resources 5th.
The e-Commerce Sector Inquiry
Consumer Law: Protection and Compliance UCC 11 December 2014 Consumer Law: the European Agenda.
Guido Pier Paolo Bortoni President of Italian Regulatory Authority for Electricity Gas and Water (AEEGSI) UNIVERSAL ENERGY ACCESS A Focus on Universal.
Supplier Switching in Electricity and Gas Markets Patricia de Suzzoni Chair of ERGEG Customer Focus Group.
Supplier Selection & Evaluation
Principles of Marketing Lecture-43 Summary of Lecture-42.
Session 18 The Future AN Other. Session 18 The Future How market pressure (bottom-up) and GATS/WTO agreements (top-down) will influence the postal sector:
What the government does A2 Economics and Business Unit 4B By Mrs Hilton for revisionstation.
Justice and Consumers Understanding DSM obstacles – the evidence European Consumer Consultative Group meeting March 2015 Dan Dionisie, Consumer Markets.
Belgrade, 29 March 2011 The Internet and EU consumer law: Issues with distance selling.
|Date faculty of law groningen centre of energy law 1 Security of Supply – EU Perspective and Legal Framework First EU-Russia Energy Law Conference,30.
Stakeholder Objectives
COMP 6125 An Introduction to Electronic Commerce Session 4: E-Commerce In Developing Countries.
1 THE THIRD ENERGY PACKAGE – THE ENERGY COMMUNITY APPROACH Energy Community Secretariat 20 th Forum of the Croatian Energy Association and WEC National.
Consumer Information and Mobilization Processes Graca Cabral Grazyna Rokicka.
Animal Welfare EU Strategy Introduction Community Action Plan The Commission's commitment to EU citizens, stakeholders, the EP and.
Marketing Dynamics Lecture 1 Jeanette MacNaught. Session objectives Definition of marketing The development of marketing as a way of doing business Marketing.
Competition, consumers & affordable prices in liberalised energy markets J. Minor, European Commission, Director, Consumer Affairs IV World Forum on Energy.
Chapter 21 MARKETING - SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE 1The Impact of Marketing 2Criticisms of Marketing 3Increasing Social Responsibility.
© 2009 South-Western, Cengage LearningMARKETING 1 Chapter 2 SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE MARKETING 2-1The Impact of Marketing 2-2Criticisms of Marketing 2-3Increasing.
Workshop 5 – Territorial connectivity for individuals, communities and enterprises SeGI – Services of General Interest Alois Humer (PP UNIVIE) ESPON Internal.
European Commission, Technical Assistance Information Exchange Unit (TAIEX), DG Enlargement in co-operation with The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and.
Marketing: An Introduction Armstrong, Kotler
Environments of LSOs. Environments is the term used to describe the context in which business is carried out. There are two main environments: Internal:
POSTAL CONFERENCE 25 th – 27 th February 2015 Nairobi, Kenya By Yvonne UMUTONI Chairperson of EACO Working Group 9 (Quality of Service and Consumer Affairs)
Can Big Business be Controlled? Regulation.
Consumer Education and Information (Session Ib: Tools to empower consumers) Edin Zametica Advisor to SERC, Bosnia and Herzegovina Chair of the ECRB Customers.
Law Enforcement in the EU Tamás Molnár The European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumers ODR Conference Vienna.
Directorate General for Energy and Transport European Commission Directorate General for Energy and Transport Regulation of electricity markets in the.
1. Main types: 1. Formal International and Supranational Organizations -WTO: the world trade agreements provide for binding obligations of the Member.
Starter: What is a mission statement?
PRESENTED AT THE STAKEHOLDERS FORUM ON QUALITY OF SERVICE AND CONSUMER EXPERIENCE LAICO REGENCY HOTEL Creating Space for Consumer Rights in.
Making the Internal Energy Market work Tudor Constantinescu DG Energy
1 TINF 2010 Tuesday 30 November 2010 Present and Future Regulation of Electronic Communications Vesa Terävä European Commission Information Society & Media.
Eurostat Statistical challenges in collecting e-commerce data What do we know, What would we like to know, and What is difficult Carsten OLSSON Eurostat.
2014 edition of the Market Monitoring Survey Findings on financial services ECCG meeting 12 March 2014 Luca Protti, Consumer Markets Unit, SANCO.
WORKSHOP ON CONSUMER PROTECTION IN VIETNAM
Independence and powers of regulators: legal and institutional requirements Heinz Hilbrecht, Director, European Commission World Forum on Energy Regulation.
1 COMPETITION LAW FORUM Paris 21 June 2006 Competitiveness versus Competition Presentation by Humbert DRABBE Director for Cohesion and Competitiveness,
PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF CONSUMERS OF FINANCIAL SERVICES Role of Supervisory Authorities Keynote Address to the FinCoNet Open Meeting 22 April 2016.
International Contracts Slide Set 1a The Legal Environment of International Markets Matti Rudanko.
Gints Zeltiņš Commissioner of the Public Utilities Commission of Latvia Multi-sectoral regulator: Public Utilities Commission of Latvia.
© International Road Transport Union (IRU) IRU Academy Seminar, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsPage 1 5 th International IRU Academy Seminar on Driver.
The Energy Consumer Code NEON, February Background 2020 Vision for Europe’s Energy Customers (November 2012) Energy Union Strategy ‘Delivering a.
ROMANIA NATIONAL NATURAL GAS REGULATORY AUTHORITY Public Service Obligations in Romanian Gas Sector Ligia Medrea General Manager – Authorizing, Licensing,
CIVICS PACKET – FEBRUARY DUE BY FEBRUARY 28 TH. STANDARD CE.13A THE STUDENT WILL DEMONSTRATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.
MCCAA Conference Friday 14 th March 2014 New measures on the EU single market for telecoms Grace Attard, ACR, EESC Pauline Azzopardi, ACR.
Regime to apply regarding financial services, such as banking, credit and insurance Audrius LINARTAS Deputy Chairman Insurance Supervisory Commission of.
Influences on Marketing
Marzena Lipman Policy Manager 5 February 2014
Lear - Laboratorio di economia, antitrust, regolamentazione
Business sector engagement and Consumer Awareness October 3rd, 2017
Safeguarding Consumers in the Digital World
Why updating our Memorandum? Context
Chapter 15 European Consumers.
Proposal for a NPN module 2010 on Consumer Empowerment
Legal Aspects of Finance
Outline Background: development of the Commission’s position
Presentation transcript:

1 Activities of Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection Evidence based policy of consumer protection University of Zurich, 24 November 2007 Maria Lissowska, Taskforce on Consumer Markets, DG SANCO

2 Mission of DG SANCO Art.153 of the Treaty establishing the European Community In order to promote the interests of consumers and to ensure a high level of consumer protection, the Community shall contribute to protecting the health, safety and economic interests of consumers, as well as to promoting their right to information, education and to organise themselves in order to safeguard their interests. Mission: to meet the expectations of European citizens to live safe, healthy and full lives and to have their health and safety rights protected througtout Europe at the same level.

3 Structure of SANCO Human health Food safety Health and human treatment of animals Rights of citizens in their role of consumers

4 Consumer Strategy Empowering consumers, enhancing their welfare, effectively protecting them Principal goal: to enhance consumer welfare, but: In what conditions? How to distinguish where welfare – detriment is? By what means?

5 Conditions for consumers Fragmentation of consumer market, partly counter-balanced by: import e-commerce - still limited to national markets (if 27% of consumers made an on- line purchase over a year, only 6% made it cross-border) Advertising increasingly sophisticated, too much information Domination of providers

6 Measures to enhance consumer welfare To empower consumers by enabling choice, assuring accurate information, provide effective protection and respect of rights To protect them against serious risks that they cannot tackle as individuals.

7 Measures to empower consumers Legislation Enforcement and redress Education Support for consumer organisations

8 Principal Directives protecting consumers On unfair commercial practices On contracts negotiated away from business premises On package travel On unfair terms in consumer contracts On timeshare On distance contracts On indication of prices On injunctions for the protection of consumers’ interests On sale and guarantees On consumer credit On electronic commerce On distance marketing of consumer financial services On compensations to air passengers

9 Role of legislation Binding for providers Regulating relations between providers and consumers Empowering consumers and not replacing them in their choices Legislation is transposed and enforced by national administrations, not by the Commission

10 Consumer protection and other policies Supply-side of economy has an impact on consumers – market failures (abuse of dominant position) But: even competitive markets may not perform for consumers, due to: Information asymmetry, misleading advertising Common actions of suppliers (e.g. bundling, market partitioning, unfair commercial practices) Behavioural deficiencies of consumers (exploited by suppliers).

11 Competition and consumer policy Competition necessary, but insufficient to empower consumer Empowered consumers enhance supply by making pressure on providers by activating innovation

12 Knowledge necessary for consumer policy Which markets are failing? Who is concerned? What is the reason (market failure, behaviour)? What remedies may be applied? What the consumers really wish? What may be the effectiveness and cost of remedies?

13 Knowledge on the outcomes of past policies Rationale: consumers are subject to influence of different measures (of national bodies, of other EU policies), necessity to check effectiveness of competition and consumer protection measures Tools: monitoring (now Consumer Markets Scoreboard being developed); indicators: Price divergences Consumer satisfaction Consumer complaints Safety Switching

14 Knowledge on consumers Satisfaction methodology and surveys Eurobarometers on consumer protection and on business attitudes with respect to cross-border sales Eurobarometer and focus groups on services of general interest Consumer detriment (in progress).

15 Satisfaction surveys Completed in 2007 on services of general interest: Electricity supply Gas supply Water distribution Fixed telephony Mobile telephony Urban Transport Extra-urban transport Air transport Postal services Retail banking Insurance services

16 Satisfaction surveys cont. Distinguishing 25 Member States Socio-economic groups (gender, age, education, occupation)

17 Satisfaction survey - methodology Definition of satisfaction – to what extent consumer requirements are met Satisfaction drivers: Price (transparency, payment process, affordability, accuracy) Quality (reliability, safety, information, technical support, availability, points of sale) Image (reputation, relationship with customer, flexibility, consumer mindedness)

18 Satisfaction survey - methodology Primary indicators – satisfaction measures (1..10) Contribution of drivers to overall satisfaction (by regression analysis) – to distinguish essential drivers Two-dimension visualisation (degree of satisfaction with a driver – degree of expectations for a driver) – to distinguish priority actions (high expectations – low satisfaction)

19 Satisfaction survey – outcomes High satisfaction: air transport, insurance, mobile telephony – low satisfaction:urban and extra-urban transport (but indices fairly similar) The most important driver: price, but the most satisfactory - quality For some services (insurance, water, fixed telephony, urban transport) new MS less satisfied The most satisfied are elder consumers (especially retired), with secondary education. Students and self- employed are the least satisfied

20 Eurobarometer on consumer protection in the Internal Market Objectives: To detect facts on cross-border shopping: level and principal areas problems it may generate (unfair practices, respect of rights, delivery, complaints) To measure level of consumer confidence in cross-border shopping, reasons of its lack To find out what is the level of satisfaction with consumer protection, role of authorities.

21 Eurobarometer on consumer protection in the Internal Market Findings: Cross-border shopping is occasional (holidays), more frequent for package holiday E-commerce increasingly popular, but mostly for domestic purchases Problems in cross-border delivery, information Low knowledge and confidence in cross-bordeer shopping – higher for educated consumers High (but not general) satisfaction with national protection systems, price transparency as favourite tool

22 Eurobarometer on business attitudes Target group: SME (97% of the sample) Problems focused on: cross-border sales and consumer protection Role of different sales channels Preparedness for cross-border sales Barriers for cross-border sales (risk of non-payments, costs of compliance with national regulations, delivery, language, after-sale and complaints connected difficulty) Measures to facilitate cross-border trade (harmonised regulations, better information, Alternative Dispute Resolution)

23 Eurobarometer on business attitudes Principal findings: 29% of retailers carry out cross-border trade (mostly by Internet), but only to a few countries 48% of retailers declare to be prepared to sell cross- border The most important obstacle: insecurity of transactions, national fiscal regulations and consumer laws, complaints and after-sale handling Not cross-border trading companies perceive barriers as more harmful Harmonization of laws perceived as promising

24 Eurobarometer and focus groups on SGI Services: Communications Mobile telephony Fixed telephony Internet Postal services Banking Water and energy Transport Aspects: Access Use Affordability Importance in daily life Comparing offers Switching providers Fair terms and conditions Making complaints Protection of consumer interests

25 Eurobarometer on SGI Main findings: Some sections of society excluded because of inaffordability of services (electricity, mobile telephony) Better educated consumers make more complaints and their handling is poor Comparison of offers is difficult and terms of contracts are often unknown Consumers feel in general well protected with respect to SGI.

26 Focus groups on SGI Services: fixed and mobile telephony, postal services, bank account, Internet access Objectives – to detect: usage satisfaction (ease of access, prcie, quality) attitudes with regard to choice of supplier Scope of study: average consumers vulnerable consumers (with insufficient resources, elder, retired, living in remote areas)

27 Insights from behavioural economics On needs and objectives of consumers To what degree new commercial practices may be beneficial/harmful Which consumer behaviour is due to conscious choice and which is an anomaly (where to intervene?) On potential empowering measures and their effectiveness