Editor's note

The 2015 edition of the Consumer Scoreboard focuses on the EU’s digital single market while showing the lack of trust, territorial restrictions and price discrimination as main barriers to cross-border e-commerce in Europe.

The Commission intends to put forward a proposal before the end of the year to make cross-border e-commerce easier in the framework of the Digital Single Market. It will include EU-wide rules on contracts and consumer protection for online purchases.

Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová underlined that the new consumer scoreboard confirmed that consumers did not yet fully trust cross-border e-commerce.

One of the new Commission’s priorities is to complete the Digital Single Market and unleash its full potential. This is why the EU and the member states have to lift the remaining barriers to cross-border e-commerce.

By the end of the year, the Commission will propose new rules offering better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services across Europe.

Consumer Scoreboard main findings

The Scoreboard is the EU’s regular report that tracks the integration of the EU internal retail market from the consumer perspective and monitors the quality of the national consumer environment. The country reports annexed to this Scoreboard provide detailed consumer statistics for each country. The Scoreboard data is used by national authorities and consumer organisations in designing and evaluating their own activities.

The main findings of the Scoreboard are:

·                     Consumers buying across borders still face many problems, in particular, regarding delivery and product conformity. Moreover, consumers continue to face restrictions and price discrimination due to their country of residence in cross-border transactions. These issues also account for the majority of complaints about cross-border e-commerce received by European Consumer Centres.

·                     Further awareness-raising on consumer rights is needed. Consumers' and retailers' awareness of some key consumer rights guaranteed by the EU legislation remains limited. Only 9% of consumers were able to answer correctly when asked about their rights, with the lowest levels of knowledge found among young people.

·                     Further development of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) promises more effective consumer redress. A quarter of all consumers encountering problems do not complain. The majority of consumers who did not take any action in case of a problem were discouraged by the perceived difficulties (e.g. low likelihood of success, lack of information, length of procedure). Satisfaction with complaint handling is highest amongst those consumers who complained to ADR bodies, even though the use and knowledge of these bodies are still relatively low.

·                     Trust in product safety has been relatively stable over the years, with retailers consistently having more positive views than consumers (69% of consumers and 75% of retailers agreed that most non-food products on the market are safe).

Table I: Online business-to-consumer sales in EU-28

Table II: Confidence in domestic and EU cross-border online purchases

For more information:

·                     Full 2015 EU Consumer Scoreboard;

·                     Top seven findings from the Scoreboard;

·                     Animated infographics;

·                     Eurobarometer: Retailer Attitudes towards Cross-Border Trade and Consumer Protection;

·                     Eurobarometer: Consumer Attitudes towards Cross-Border Trade and Consumer Protection.

= Main reference: European Commission, Press release IP-15-5684 “EU Consumer Scoreboard shows untapped e-commerce potential”, Brussels, 21 September 2015, in: