EU Flags for Further Investigation Six Romanian Websites Selling Consumer Electronics

The Commission investigated between May 11 and May 15 some 370 websites in 26 EU-member countries (all except Slovakia), plus Norway and Iceland, it said in a statement.

“The results of our investigation were very disappointing. We found that consumers are being badly let down,” the EU executive quoted European Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva as saying in another statement also on Wednesday.

At this first stage, national authorities detected problems in 55% of the websites under review, Kuneva said. Some of the most common problems detected were missing or misleading key information about consumers’ rights, misleading or incomplete information about the total cost, and missing or incomplete contact details of the trader.

“In the coming months, national enforcement authorities will contact the companies managing the websites concerned and ask them to clarify the situation or bring the sites in line with the law. Otherwise, companies can be taken to the court or face financial penalties under national law,” Kuneva said.

The Commission has also checked 12 such Bulgarian websites and 10 Slovenian, but has flagged none of them.

Slovenia joined the EU in 2004 while Romania and Bulgaria joined the bloc in 2007.