The European Commission recently published the results of the 2023 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard, an instrument that assesses consumers’ attitudes, behaviours and experiences with respect to domestic and cross-border trade and other related themes. The scoreboard’s main data source are representative surveys carried out in the 27 EU member states, and also in Iceland and Norway.
The results reveal key findings on consumers’ concerns about the energy crisis and the high cost of living. The survey also sheds light on whether consumers’ purchase choices are influenced by environmental consideration; consumers’ level of confidence in online sales; and what concerns them when shopping online.
This year’s survey also assessed consumers’ confidence in retailers and service providers, product safety and knowledge of consumer rights.
Concerning the high cost of living, the scoreboard revealed that 37% of all respondents (Malta: 55%) reported that they dipped into their savings because of increased inflation rates. In response to energy price hikes, most consumers claimed they have adapted their habits to cope.
A total of 71% of consumers (Malta: 53%) said they changed their energy habits at home to save money, while 28% (Malta: 19%) adjusted their use of transport.
Regarding the green transition and climate change concerns, despite the high level of awareness on the environmental impact of the consumption of goods and services, 43% of respondents (Malta: 48%), said they were not at all influenced by environmental concerns.
Furthermore, compared to the previous scoreboard, fewer consumers expressed belief in the reliability of environmental claims. In fact, almost 40% of European consumers disagree that environmental claims are reliable.
As online shopping keeps growing year after year, with 71% of European consumers claiming to have bought goods or services online in the past year, consumers are increasingly exposed to unfair practices online.
From a list of 10 possible problematic online commercial practices, eight were experienced by over half the respondents. The three most frequently reported practices were: personally targeted online advertising (76%), hidden advertising in search results (75%), and reviews that did not appear genuine (69%).
When asked about important concerns in relation to online advertising, 70% of respondents (Malta: 89%) claimed to be mostly worried about the use and sharing of personal data, 66% (Malta: 87%) about the collection of online data and related profiling without explicit knowledge or agreement, and 57% (Malta: 70%) about cookies’ installation.
Concerning consumers’ trust in traders to respect their legal rights, 76% of respondents (Malta: 65%) agreed that retailers and service providers respect consumer rights.
37% of all respondents (Malta: 55%) reported that they dipped into their savings because of increased inflation- Odette Vella
There is also a high level of trust concerning the management of complaints by retailers and service providers. Consumers’ knowledge of their legal rights was also assessed in this year’s scoreboard. This knowledge was essentially tested based on four rights:
• the right to return goods bought via distance trade within 14 days of receiving them;
• that a contract of sale could not include a clause to raise the price significantly without offering the possibility to cancel;
• the right to a free repair or replacement in the event of a new product breaking down within two years of delivery; and
• knowledge about whether consumers have to pay for or return unsolicited products.
While 28% of European consumers were found to have a high level of knowledge of their rights, 37% had a low level of knowledge.
The 2023 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard also assessed European consumers’ confidence in relation to travelling. Mindful of the travel disruptions caused by COVID-19, 44% of respondents (Malta: 46%), expressed a preference for late bookings of future travel plans.
When questioned about possible cancellations in the future, only 33% (Malta: 42%) agreed that they would accept a voucher instead of a refund in relation to delayed travel arrangement. Furthermore, 32% (Malta: 35%) felt confident about being protected in case of bankruptcy.
The scoreboard aims to monitor the consumer environment across the EU. The data for this year’s scoreboard was gathered through surveys carried out in October and November 2022. The surveys were conducted by telephone among representative samples of the general public aged 18 and over in each of the 27 EU member states as well as Iceland and Norway.
The sample size was 1,000 per country, except in Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland, where the sample size was 500. The key topics assessed in the standard survey included consumer confidence and knowledge, online purchasing, product safety, problems and complaints, and unfair and illicit commercial practices.
Besides the standard survey, a specific survey was carried out covering current topics relating to the cost of living, energy, travel post-COVID-19 restrictions and online gaming.
Odette Vella is director, Information and Research Directorate, MCCAA.
WWW.MCCAA.ORG.MT