Cross-border shoppers to get new rights

EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said she is acting because cross-border shopping is a vast potential market which is unfulfilled because of public suspicions about the risks.

Her proposals, approved by the Commission today and now to be submitted to EU government ministers, will guarantee clear price information and extra charges, offer protection against late delivery or non-delivery, as well as clarifying rights to refunds, repairs and cooling-off periods when buying or ordering goods.

The plans amount to an overhaul of existing consumer rights directives, with simplified, standard requirement in 27 countries. The move will also trigger a drastic cut in red tape, which the Commission says is holding back business within national borders.

"With household budgets under strain and purchasing power at the top of citizens' concerns, it has never been more important for consumers to be able to compare prices and shop around to get the best value on offer," Ms Kuneva said today.

"These new rules are designed to strengthen protection and close the loopholes in key areas where consumer trust is being undermined."

Only about one in four – 27% – of shoppers are currently prepared to buy goods online across borders according to figures which have shown virtually no growth in the internet cross-border sector since 2006.

That figure would be much greater, said Ms Kuneva, if shoppers and retailers alike were more confident in using the internet to do business.

At the moment, about 75% of retailers only sell to domestic consumers, but a consumer report last week suggested that if sales and after-sales service rules were standardised across the EU for online shopping, about half of those retailers would be interested in selling cross-border.

The Commission points to major retail savings to be had if consumers had confidence in using the internet to take full advantage of the EU single market to ship around in 27 countries.

There are big price differences, for instance in clothing furniture, electronics and cars.

The average cost of furniture is 59% higher in Italy, the UK and Ireland than in lowest-price Romania says the Commission.

Lithuania has the biggest bargains in consumer electronics, while Austria is the most expensive, at about 34% more on average than Lithuania.

Even neighbouring EU countries show big differences which consumer could take more advantage of:

For electronic goods, the UK is 10.4% dearer than Ireland, Spain is 12.4% more expensive than Portugal and Estonia is 14.2% dearer than Romania.

For clothing, Ireland is 9.1% dearer than the UK, Austria is 28.5% more expensive than Germany and Estonia is 47.9% dearer than Romania.

One single example cited by the Commission today was of a "distance-selling" company which last March was selling the same Panasonic digital camera at hugely different prices in different markets – just €198 in the UK, compared with €254 in Ireland, €276 in Belgium and €306 in Finland.

Today's proposed rules do not fix prices – retailers can sell their goods at any price they wish to – but Ms Kuneva wants to make customers confident enough to capitalise on the savings possible by looking abroad.

The new rules include the automatic right of a consumer to a full refund within seven days if goods ordered abroad are not delivered within 30 days of a contractual agreement.

There will be one standard set of rules covering repairs, replacement and product guarantees when buying abroad.

And there will be a 14-day "cooling-off" period in which customer can change their mind about buying goods, using an EU-wide standard "withdrawal form".

Most financial services, timeshare deals and package holidays and the purchase of houses, are not covered by the new proposals: the first two categories are covered by separate consumer protection legislation, and the sale of houses is about rules of ownership and is covered by national, and not EU, rules.