news
9.9.2009
Sweep on electronic goods
The Consumer Agency is part of the Consumer Protection Co-operation (CPC) Network, pursuant to Act No. 56/2007. One part of the co-operation are coordinated checks on a particular market, called sweeps. The participating national authorities systematically and simultaneously check whether consumer rights are being compromised. The authorities will then further investigate traders which are suspected of irregularities and take follow-up actions in case of non-compliance.
Last May a sweep was performed on websites offering consumer electronic goods, i.e. digital cameras, mobile phones, personal music players, DVD players, computer equipment and game consoles. 26 EU-Member States and Norway and Iceland took part in the investigation which covered 369 websites.
Websites were checked for compliance with consumer laws relating to information about:
- the trader,
- the offer, i.e. total price and product description,
- consumer rights.
The results of the investigation were announced today by the EU Consumer Commissioner. The results showed that 55% of the 369 checked websites showed irregularities which are being investigated further. The most common problems found were misleading information about consumer rights, misleading information about the total cost of the product and missing or incomplete contact details of the trader.
The Consumer Agency´s investigation covered ten Icelandic websites which offer electronic goods. The websites were checked for compliance with articles of Act No. 57/2005, on the surveillance of business practices and marketing, Act No. 30/2002 on electronic commerce and other electronic services and Act No. 46/2000 on door-to-door sales and distance contracts, all of which are based on EU-wide consumer rules.
Two of the checked websites were in compliance with the abovementioned Acts regarding the selling of electronic goods online, which are the websites of Elko, www.elko.is and Nýherji, www.netverslun.is.
The other websites that the Consumer Agency checked need further investigation, which are bodeind.is, computer.is, ejs.is, fartolvur.is, siminn.is, start.is, tolvuvirkni.is and vodafone.is.
The Consumer Agency has contacted the abovementioned traders and asked for further information and clarifications and to correct the problems where needed.
The complete EU press release can be read here.