New Research by the European Consumer Centre network has established some serious problems with online shopping and has called for the enforcement of existing consumer legislation to provide protection.
Its survey found European consumers who regularly shop over the internet regularly experience problems with delivery of goods, product-related problems and price and payment difficulties.
The ECC network, co-financed by the European Commission, handled more than 1,800 e-commerce related queries between January and October 2003 with these issues emerging as the chief problems.
Some 41 per cent of consumers experienced difficulties with the delivery of goods bought online, 23 per cent reported product related problems and 11 per cent had encountered difficulties with the price of the goods and in making payments.
A recent emerging trend was the high incidence of fraud reported by consumers who participated in internet auctions. There was also a rise in the number of complaints about trans-Atlantic online shopping and the enforcement of existing consumer protection legislation.
The ECC said that under the Distance Selling Directive, the consumer has the right to withdraw from the contract without reason within a specific number of days.
The survey was based on 114 shopping orders placed within the EU which resulted in the delivery of 75 products, or 66 per cent of those ordered.
On average a product ordered online was delivered within 11 days but it added that this number had been skewed by the fact that three products took more than 30 days to arrive.
The Distance Selling Directive stipulates that the webtrader shall deliver within 30 days from the day when the goods were ordered. The longest delivery time experienced by the ECC was 67 days for a T-shirt to arrive in Luxembourg from Austria.
Most payments were through credit cards and were processed on average within five days.
Of the transactions it completed, 24 per cent of the payments were withdrawn on the same day the order was place while more than half were within two days.
The ECC found that in 96 per cent of its transactions the prices corresponded exactly with those charged at the time of purchase. Only 83 per cent of deliveries included a receipt or invoice.
