Kuneva wants scoreboards to spark more competition

European markets are to come under intensified scrutiny under policy reforms planned by Meglena Kuneva, the commissioner for consumer protection. Consumer regulators are to begin combing markets for signs of abuse with the aim of triggering increased competition.

The policy is expected to change the way the Commission approaches industry regulation. Markets including those for energy, food and financial services will be measured on a range of indicators such as price, contractual terms, safety and consumer satisfaction that will enable regulators to pinpoint evidence of malpractice such as collusion.

Kuneva will kick off the change in policy at the end of this month with the release of a scoreboard highlighting weaknesses in sectors such as energy. "Businesses will have the certainty that, through the scoreboard, they will be able to talk directly with consumers," she told European Voice.

The move will align the EU’s policy with that of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which regulates on antitrust and consumer policy. Kuneva has twice discussed proposals with US officials in Washington and Brussels over the past year. Tighter co-ordination between the Commission’s directorates-general for consumer policy, competition and internal market is expected.

"Competition is not just a supply-side thing," said a Commission official. "Consumers can drive competition as a market force." She said that the policy, described as "a new way of diagnosing malfunctioning markets and triggering actions", would in certain aspects go beyond work being done by the FTC.

BusinessEurope, the employers’ federation, gave the policy shift a cautious welcome. "We would welcome an upgrading of market monitoring. Until now, consumer policy proposals have often not been founded on sound data," said Carlos Almaraz, deputy director of BusinessEurope’s internal market department. "Often political aspects prevail over the needs of consumers," he said.

"We don’t want to see this as another way of putting forward political demands or theoretical ideas. We hope this will bring a pragmatic approach. We don’t want to see instruments used for the support of proposals already on the table."

EU firms and business lobbies have expressed concerns over the past year about plans to introduce collective redress mechanisms that would make it easier for consumers to unite across borders to bring companies to heel. They fear that the new system would replicate the excesses of the US class-action culture.

Kuneva has denied that the EU system would ape US culture, but there are significant changes in the legal market. US law firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, considered as frontrunners in the class-action field, recently set up offices in London in anticipation of increased convergence of transatlantic antitrust policy.

A Commission consultation on the subject is under way and a study setting out existing forms of collective redress across the EU is to be published this summer. The commissioner will issue a communication setting out policy options by the end of the year.

With the forthcoming ratification of the Lisbon treaty still in the balance, the Commission is keen to prove its consumer-friendly credentials.

"The wind is definitely blowing consumers’ way," said Kuneva. "This is the new narrative of the internal market. We are asking the citizens to vote for the Treaty of Lisbon, but they will ask what we are doing for them. We need concrete answers."

European markets are to come under intensified scrutiny under policy reforms planned by Meglena Kuneva, the commissioner for consumer protection. Consumer regulators are to begin combing markets for signs of abuse with the aim of triggering increased competition.