The consumer markets scoreboard.

Abstract

Innovation and increased effi ciency are key to maintaining and improving the competitive advantage of the EU. Consumer policy can play an important role in stimulating both innova-tion and effi ciency. Eff ective enforcement of consumer rights sustains and can, in some cases, rebuild trust in markets. Empowered consumers, who can understand the ever more complex choices given to them, can reward the most effi cient and innovative manufacturers and providers. In contrast, markets where consumer rights are not protected and where consumers fi nd it hard to identify and compare quality and price may experience consumer detriment, loss of confi dence and reduced incentives for quality improvement and effi ciency. A recent study has shown that the losses reported by European consumers, as a result of problems for which they had a cause for complaint are esti-mated to represent approximately 0.3 % of EU’s GDP1. Provided they are informed and confi dent, Europe’s consumers are poten-tially its trump card in transforming our economy.Market monitoring, deployed to analyse how well the economy is working from a consumer point of view and to identify the sectors where effi ciency improvements are possible, can steer policy to areas where it can pay the greatest dividends. The Commission has therefore developed the Consumer Markets Scoreboard to regularly monitor how the single market is working for consumers.