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Electrical goods websites accused of being misleading

October 4, 2009 by admin  
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It has been claimed in a recent report that a large number of websites that are selling electrical goods are actually misleading consumers.

An investigation carried out across Europe has found that more than 50 percent of websites selling electrical goods are breaching regulations with regards to the way in which they are making sales.

The online electrical market in Europe is said to be worth seven billion euros per year, and officials have now pledged to clean up this market.

The investigation was carried out by the European Commission and involved looking at nearly four hundred electrical retail websites, and more than 50 percent were found to show irregularities.

Amongst the irregularities that were found to be present were failure of the websites to provide information relating to consumer rights and returns, misleading consumers with regards to the total cost of the electrical item, and failing to give property contact details for the trader.

The websites looked at were those that sold amongst the most popular electrical appliances bought online, which included DVD players, games consoles, and computer equipment.

The EU Consumer Commissioner stated: ‘We targeted websites selling electronic goods because I know from my own mail bag, and we know from the level of complaints coming into European consumer centres that these are a real problem area for consumers.

‘We discovered that more than half of the retailers selling online electronic goods are letting consumers down.’ The commissioner added: ‘This is a Europe-wide problem which needs a European solution. There is a lot of work to be done in the months ahead to clean up this sector, Europe’s consumers deserve better.’

The commission said that more than one third of complaints made to the commission with regards to online sales in 2007 were in connection with electrical sales.

Tags: cost, EU Consumer Commissioner, investigation, Europe-wide problem, way, electrical retailers, solution, electrical goods. online electrical goods

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