1、Justice and Consumers 2018 EDITION Consumer Markets Scoreboard Making markets work for consumers ISSN 2529-5691 Printed by Imprimerie Centrale in Luxembourg Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of the followin

2、g information. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2018 European Union, 2018 Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of European Commission documents is regulated by Decision 2011/833/EU (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39). For any use or reproduction o

3、f photos or other material that is not under the EU copyright, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holders. PRINT ISBN 978-92-79-89703-0 ISSN 1831-3310 doi:10.2838/856418 DS-AO-18-001-EN-C PDF ISBN 978-92-79-89731-3 ISSN 2529-5691 DOI:10.2838/25750 DS-AO-18-001-EN-N 2018 EDITION Co

4、nsumer Markets Scoreboard Making markets work for consumers Table of contents 1 Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 2 Measuring the performance of consumer markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 2.1. Measur

5、ing the performance of consumer markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 2.2. The Market Performance Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 2.3. Presentation of results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6、 . . . . . .13 3 Consumer assessments of market performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 3.1. Overall results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 3.2. Market assessments differences between countries . . . . . . . . .

7、 . . . . . . .19 3.3. Assessment of different market groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 3.3.1. Overall assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 3.3.2. Results by market cluster . . . . . .

8、 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 3.4. Socio-demographic differences in market assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 3.5. Assessment of different market components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 3.5.1. Comparability . . . .

9、. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 3.5.2. Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 3.5.3. Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . .

10、 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 3.5.4. Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 3.5.5. Problems SWD (2017) 279. 3. GfK Monitoring consumer

11、markets in the European Union 2017 Final report; earlier waves are accessible at: https:/ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/consumers/consumer- protection/evidence-based-consumer-policy/market-monitoring_en or the EU Bookshop. 4. The list of markets surveyed for the 2018 edition is included in the Annex. Ke

12、y findings Consumers assessment of markets in 2017 continues the positive trend observed since 2010, while adding little to the significant improvement observed in 2015. A consumers financial situation is still the personal characteristic that most influences their assessment of markets. Although th

13、ere has been a clear improvement for consumers overall since the last Scoreboard edition, the picture remains rather mixed across markets and countries. Problems remain in some areas. In an improving economic context, efforts to enhance consumer protection in key sectors such as in financial service

14、s, utilities and telecoms might be bringing positive results for consumers. These however need to consolidate further and will require a consistent focus on enforcement. 9 Consumer Markets Scoreboard 2018 Consumers assessment of markets in 2017 continues the positive trend observed since 2010, while

15、 adding little to the significant improvement observed in 2015 Consumers overall assessment of market performance in 2017 improved by 0.3 points on average compared to 2015 for all markets surveyed. The increase, albeit less pronounced and more contrasted, nonetheless sustains the important ameliora

16、tion observed two years ago and continues the positive trend observed since 2010. Markets in western Europe still perform better for consumers, who are less likely to report having encountered problems. However, looking across the EU, the greatest improvements have been in eastern Europe. Markets in

17、 Southern Europe still lag somewhat behind in terms of overall performance. A consumers financial situation is still the personal characteristic that most influences their assessment of markets A multivariate analysis was carried out based on the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. It

18、showed that a consumers personal financial situation is the factor that most influences how they assess the different components that form the Market Performance Indicator (MPI). Consumers that are struggling to make ends meet tend to assess markets less favourably than other consumer groups, and th

19、ey also find it more difficult to switch provider (they are however not significantly less inclined to switch). Other socioeconomic characteristics, such as age, gender or level of education also seem to play some role in consumers assessment of markets, albeit a far smaller one. These findings are

20、consistent with those of the previous Scoreboard edition, in which this type of analysis was performed for the first time. Consumers across the EU also care in roughly equal measure about each of the five MPI components comparability, trust, choice, expectations and problems http:/europa.eu/rapid/pr

21、ess-release_IP-18-3041_en.htm. 6. A Fitness Check of consumer and marketing law and an evaluation of the Consumer Rights Directive, both published in May 2017, see: http:/ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/ item-detail.cfm?item_id=59332, and a Report on the implementation of the 2013 Recommendation on Colle

22、ctive Redress, published on 25 January 2018: COM(2018) 40. Improvements can also be observed in markets that consumers tend to assess rather poorly. For instance, the market for mortgages underperforms for consumers when compared to other services markets, but overall its performance has improved th

23、e most of any market since 2015 (by 2.0 points). There has also been a decline in the number of consumers that reported experiencing problems in the mortgage market (-1.9 pp. compared to 2015). The market for water supply still ranks at the bottom of the markets surveyed, but it has also improved st

24、rongly (by 1.2 points) since 2015. Detriment (i.e. financial or other loss) nonetheless remains sizeable in many markets, and even more so in services markets. Also, while many markets seem to meet consumers expectations (to varying degrees), this does not necessarily mean that those markets are hig

25、h-performing in terms of overall MPI. There is therefore still room for improvement. A strong focus on implementation and effective enforcement of new consumer rules will also be essential to ensure that recent changes are effective and that consumers do not have to settle for less. The Commission p

26、resented a New Deal for Consumers on 11 April 2018 5 following an in-depth evaluation of key consumer legislation 6. The two proposals for Directive modernise consumer rights and provide for new tools for consumers to defend their rights and get redress. These proposals also include measures to stre

27、ngthen deterrence and improve compliance, such as stronger penalties to tackle the most serious cross-border infringements. Measuring the performance of consumer markets 12 Consumer Markets Scoreboard 2018 2. Measuring the performance of consumer markets 2.1. MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF CONSUMER MA

28、RKETS 7. The contractors report Monitoring consumer markets in the European Union 2017 (thereinafter GfK Market Monitoring Survey 2017) is published at the same time as the Scoreboard. 8. Marcos Dominguez-Torreiro, Stergios Athanasoglou, Pawel Stano (2015). Consumer Markets Scoreboards refinement, f

29、urther development and analysis of micro-data. European Commission, Joint Research Centre. Available at: http:/publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC99640/kjna27724enn.pdf. 9. A more comprehensive overview of the methodological changes introduced in 2015 is provided in the 2016 editi

30、on of the Consumer Markets Scoreboard. The Consumer Markets Scoreboards monitor how consumers in the EU, Iceland and Norway assess the performance of key markets for consumer goods and services. Market performance is assessed through five components: comparability, trust, problems an overview of the

31、 markets by survey is provided in the annex. 30. The estimation of quartiles (for the MPI, its components and other indicators), as reported in the Market Monitoring Survey, is done using the Quartile.INC function in Excel. The basis for computing the quartiles is either the MPI score (Table 7) or t

32、he component score (Table 8) of individual markets for goods and services separately. For example, the light green colour for fast moving retail indicates that the MPI of this cluster falls in the quartile with the 50-75 % of results of the 15 goods markets. 3.3.1. Overall assessment The individual

33、markets surveyed were grouped thematically into the following nine market clusters: fast-moving retail goods, (semi)-durable goods, automotive goods, telecoms, transport, utilities, banking services, insurance services and recreational services 27. Of these nine clusters, six are formed of markets s

34、urveyed regularly in each survey since 2015 28. The remaining three clusters include a group of markets surveyed with varying frequency, i.e. not all were covered in the past two survey waves 29. For these three clusters, no difference with the previous reference period is calculated. However, as 20

35、17- 2013 differences can be calculated for each cluster, all markets surveyed in 2017 could be taken into account for the purposes of the analysis below. In order to clearly summarise and present the cluster data, an approach based on quartiles 30 was used (as in previous Scoreboard editions). All M

36、PI and component scores are categorised in four groups using the colour scheme below. Dark green for “high-performing”: the score of the market cluster is in the highest quartile (top 25 % results). Light green for “middle-to-high-performing”: the score of the market cluster is above the median but

37、below the top quartile (50-75 % of results). Orange for “middle-to-low-performing”: the score of the market cluster is below the median but above the bottom quartile (25-50 % of results). Red for “low-performing”: the score of the market cluster is in the lowest quartile (bottom 25 % results). Table

38、 7 shows the overall results for each market cluster and their evolution in the period 2010-2017. In general terms, the MPI scores for all market clusters indicate an improvement of between 0.1 and 0.8 points since 2015 (except for the marginal decrease of 0.1 points in the telecoms cluster). When c

39、ompared to 2013, all market clusters registered a remarkable increase, ranging from 2.4 to 5.2 points, with the fast-moving retail cluster moving from the middle-to-low-performing quartile to the middle-to- high one. 26 Consumer Markets Scoreboard 2018 Table 7: Market Performance Indicator (MPI) per

40、 market cluster 31 MPI MPI 2017 Diff 2017-2015 Diff 2017-2013 Diff 2015-2013 Diff 2013-2012 Diff 2012-2011 Diff 2011-2010 Goods Fast moving retail83.6+3.0-0.3+0.7+1.4 (Semi-)durable goods83.6+2.8-0.1+1.1+1.8 Automotive goods79.3+0.1+2.8+2.8+1.2+0.6+0.1 Services Recreational services81.6+2.4-0.7+1.1+

41、0.9 Insurance services79.8+0.2+3.4+3.2+0.7+0.4-0.5 Transport79.1+0.2+4.3+4.1+0.7+0.4+0.1 Utilities78.0+0.8+4.1+3.4+0.9+0.2-0.8 Telecoms77.3-0.1+3.2+3.0+0.2+2.2+0.1 Banking services76.9+0.7+5.2+4.4+0.7+0.8+2.2 Source: Market Monitoring Survey 2017 31. In this section (3.3), the differences in scores

42、between different waves are reported regardless of their statistical significance. The colours marked in the columns indicate to which quartile the market cluster MPI belonged in respectively 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010. 32. This section (3.3), looks into the two sub-components problems an

43、d detriment separately (instead of at the overall component problems the total price (or the way it was calculated) not being clear; promotional offers not existing in reality; user reviews not being presented in a clear and transparent way. The 2015 Package Travel Directive 51, which came into effe

44、ct on 1 July 2018, further increases the protection offered to consumers buying traditional packages predominantly put together by tour operators. The Directive also extends this protection to customised packages purchased online or 49. http:/ec.europa.eu/internal_market/scoreboard/performance_by_go

45、vernance_tool/european_consumer_centre_network/index_en.htm 50. http:/europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-17-845_en.htm 51. OJ L 326 dated 11.12.2015. offline. The modernisation of the 1990 rules (drafted when the internet was in its infancy) means that millions of EU holidaymakers who opt for custom

46、ised packages will enjoy the same rights as those who purchase traditional, ready- made travel packages. In addition, a basic protection is provided for so-called linked travel arrangements. 3.3.2.5. Insurance services The insurance services market cluster includes three markets and represents 2 % o

47、f the average household budget. This cluster is based on consumers need to manage risks and has a more utilitarian character than some of the other clusters. 35 Consumer Markets Scoreboard 2018 Figure 12: Insurance services performance scores Average MPI 79.8 Vehicle insurance Home insurance Private

48、 life insurance Comparability 7.4 % Problems 4.8% Expectations 7.7 % HBS: 2% Trust 7.2 Detriment 5.9 Choice 7.8 +0.3+0.0+0.6+0.0 -1.1-0.7-0.3 +0.4-0.0+0.0 +3.4+0.2 Source: Market Monitoring Survey 2017 Consumer detriment has decreased significantly in insurance services but remains relatively high,

49、with the home insurance market scoring worst on detriment of all the 25 services markets assessed This market cluster performs fairly well, ranked in the second place of the six services clusters in overall MPI. Between 2015 and 2017, the cluster dropped from the high-performing quartile to the middle-to-high-performing quartile, despite an increase in MPI of 0.2 points over the two years. The performance for comparability is in line with the overall market performance in terms of quartile (middle-to-high). The trust and expectations scores are in the midd