EU accuses electronics websites of unfair practices

EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva announced on the 9 September 2009 the results of an EU-wide investigation - involving 26 Member States and Norway and Iceland - into misleading advertising and unfair practices on websites selling consumer electronic goods.

The clampdown covered 369 websites selling six of the most popular electronic goods to consumers in the EU - digital cameras, mobile phones, personal music players, DVD players, computer equipment and game consoles. It covered 200 of the biggest websites selling electronic equipment in the EU as well as more than 100 websites which were targeted on the basis of consumer complaints.

The results of the checks carried out in May 2009 show that 55% of the websites investigated showed irregularities in particular relating to: misleading information about consumer rights; misleading information about the total cost of the product; or incomplete contact details for the trader. The initial checks by national authorities will now be followed by an enforcement phase when companies are contacted by national authorities and required to correct their websites or clarify their position. At this first stage, three countries – Iceland, Latvia and Norway – have published names of the websites covered by the investigation.

European Commission: Press Release: IP/09/1292: Consumers: EU crackdown on websites selling consumer electronic goods http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1292&format=DOC&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

EurActiv, 10.9.09: EU says unfair practices still dominant in e-commerce http://www.euractiv.com/en/food/eu-unfair-practices-dominant-commerce/article-185281

---