bringing the official statistics closer to consumer research breda kutin mipor director, zps...
TRANSCRIPT
Bringing the official statistics closer to consumer research
Breda KutinMIPOR director, ZPS president.
Contact e-mail: [email protected]
Luxembourg, 15 - 16 October 2009
MIPOR- International Consumer Research Institute
• MIPOR (established in 1993) is the research arm of Slovene Consumers’ Association - ZPS, a non-governmental, non-profit member-organization active in consumer advice, information, lobbying, advocacy and representation since 1990.
• MIPOR conducts research and projects in the field of consumer policy, prices, independent comparative testing of products and services, health care, patients' rights on national and EU level and
• is the publisher of the independent consumer
magazine VIP.
ZPS and MIPOR’s main activities in the price monitoring area - euro
• MIPOR started with the consumer prices monitoring activity at the end of 2005 as a professional back up for ZPS’s price campaign during the introduction of Euro.
• Extensive media coverage of the price watch campaign, based on a broad set of data, significantly contributed to curb the price hikes (Slovenia registered a deflation in the first two months of 2007).
ZPS and MIPOR specialized web page prepared for the euro adoption
Part of reports on price increases, sent by consumers. Total number was 1.800.
Standardized web forms that MIPOR prepared and consumers used for informing us about price increases
during the euro adoption campaign
ZPS, Euro and the media
From October 2006 untill April 2007
(during the most intensive leg of euro-campaign)
the representatives of ZPS
were featured 761-times
in Slovene media
and more than 600-times in foreign media.
MIPOR’s main activities in the price monitoring area – Web price portal
• The price-watch continues in the form of a specialized web portal, offering comparisons of prices of food, general consumer goods and selected groups of services.
• The Web price portal on the ZPS web site (www.zps.si) gives consumers online access to price data, in depth information on price differentiation for the same and similar groups of products, and encourages competition in the electricity supply by comparing prices and business practices of different providers, such as misleading advertising, unfair promotion activities and unfair contract terms.
• Comparative testing of food has been expanded in order to focus consumers’ attention on price differentiation based on quality of products and not marketing and brands.
MIPOR’s main activities in the price monitoring area - Web price portal
• In the project we are combining information on prices of different basic consumer items (food, cleaning agents for household … ) with results of independent comparative test. Both activities are conducted by MIPOR.
• Example of how MIPOR’s activities benefit consumers: MIPOR disclosed prices of the minced meat, exposing high differences in prices in this group; after the publication of the independent comparative test of minced meat the prices decreased and were kept on the lower level
Price movement of minced meat from 5. 10. 2007 do 28. 2. 2008
4,99 4,99
6,736,93
4,17
6,34
4,99
4,59
5,33
3,99
3,663,99 3,983,99 3,99
5,15
3,79
3,33
3,99
5,15
0,00
1,00
2,00
3,00
4,00
5,00
6,00
7,00
8,00
pre
dp
aki
ran
o m
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
;za
Me
rca
tor
pro
izva
jaM
DK
pre
dp
aki
ran
om
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
;za
Me
rca
tor
pro
izva
jaM
IP
pre
dp
aki
ran
o m
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
;pro
izva
ja M
DK
po
stre
žen
o ž
e p
rip
ravl
jen
om
eša
no
mle
to m
eso
po
stre
žen
o ž
e p
rip
ravl
jen
om
eša
no
mle
to m
eso
pre
dp
aki
ran
o m
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
, za
Sp
ar
pro
izva
jaM
eso
Ka
mn
ik
po
stre
žen
o m
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
po
stre
žen
o ž
e p
rip
ravl
jen
om
eša
no
mle
to m
eso
pre
dp
aki
ran
o m
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
E. L
ecl
erc
po
stre
žen
o ž
e p
rip
ravl
jen
om
eša
no
mle
to m
eso
, E.
Le
cle
rc
pre
dp
aki
ran
o s
veže
mle
tom
eso
Oku
s p
od
eže
lja;
pro
izva
jaL
ed
as.
d.o
.o.,
Ce
lje
pre
dp
aki
ran
om
eša
no
mle
tom
eso
; Ch
ira
, po
rekl
oN
em
čija
dro
bn
o m
leto
me
šan
om
eso
, Str
aše
k
Cen
a n
a kilo
gra
m
5.10.2007 10. - 16. 1. 2008 28.2.2008
Mercator Hipermarket Ljubljana Šiška
Spar Hipermarket Slovenčeva
E. Leclerc Ljubljana
Hofer LidlMercator Koseze
Tuš BTC
3,49
3,79
Eurospin
Last in: muscle proteins
Best result in: muscle proteins
MIPOR’s main activities in the price monitoring area – banking sector
MIPOR had argued in the past the tariffs, as published by the banks, were difficult to understand and compare by consumers themselves; therefore MIPOR experts prepared a methodology for modeling payment services for of the yearly cost a consumer has with his bank account.
Slovene central bank started publishing these statistics on MIPOR’s suggestion and MIPOR has been successfully using the these statistics
The modeled yearly costs are more informative than single bank charges and make a comparison of banks easier for consumers. The prices are published several times per year.
An inter-active web portal is planned to enable each consumer to model his own costs and compare banks in real time.
MIPOR’s main activities in the price monitoring area – banking sector
Example of MIPOR’s comparative table on yearly bank charges
The broader implications of consumer price monitoring
ZPS and MIPOR are using the data from different price monitoring activities to lobby and campaign for increased transparency and competition in various fields (banks, electricity, general retail sector etc.) that are important for consumers, consequently increasing the level of consumer protection.
Discussion points (1/3)
• The need to strengthen connections between statistical offices/other state institutions that gather price-related information on one hand and the NGO/organizations that engage in price-watch/price-monitoring projects on the other. It is of vital importance to provide financial means for (consumer) NGOs for these activities.
• The methodology for certain services where consumers pay full price, but the official data only monitors the price of a subcategory of the service (e.g. electricity, water etc.), needs to be adjusted; it means a discrepancy with other similar situations where the price of the service is compared on the gross level (eg petrol prices).
Discussion points (2/3)
• Regional aspects of the statistical data should be explored – additionally agregating data on regional level can open up new possibilities for consumer research.
• Better use should be made of the already existant ECC-Net data on cross-border consumer complaints.
• The ECC-Net Centres clasify received cross-border complaints (based on the COICOP classification), but due to the shortcomings of the current information system (IT-tool) it is almost impossible to perform an in-depth analysis of complaints on the EU-level.
Discussion points (3/3)
• The IT-tool should be upgraded to better serve the ECC-Net and European Commission – to provide instant and automatic feedback on the nature cross-border complaints (e.g. e-shopping, passengers’ rights …).
• For complaints handling and redress at national level unified methodology should be developed to enable more reliable data comparisons at EU level
Thank you for your attention!
For more information please visit www.zps.si (in Slovene) or contact me at [email protected].