THE price of goods and services in EU member states vary to such an extent that they can run into hundreds of thousands of euros, the Commission said yesterday on the launch of its new Market Watch programme.
In the first-ever scoreboard accompanying the launch of the new project, which will issue annual price comparisons between member states, Cyprus was one of the countries where for some particular food products, purchasing power was less apparent in explaining the differences.
“For fish this is the case in Cyprus, Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, where prices are relatively high,” said the report. “For milk and cheese, as for oils and fats, Cyprus, Greece and Italy are in the group of the most expensive countries.”
Market Watch will target as many as 500 goods and services where comparisons can be made.
“The Single Market has come a long way in 15 years, but we believe that consumers are still not getting the deal they deserve,” said EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.
“This powerful new tool investigates how consumers are really experiencing markets on the ground. What is letting consumers down when they try to switch? What about complex pricing? What about hidden charges and tying and bundling of offers? These new investigations are a systematic reality check that consumers are getting a fair deal.”
The first report shows such discrepancies as the prices of digital cameras, which can vary up to 30 per cent even between neighbouring countries. It also asks why fixed telephony is 20 per cent more expensive in Belgium than in the Netherlands and why electricity in Italy is twice as expensive as in Finland or Greece.
The survey shows that Cypriots lodge the fewest complaints against retailers – only five per cent – and that they are happy with what they pay for electrictity, telephony, and bank current account charges, which are the lowest in the EU.
Other than these comparisons, the Commission has not yet compiled comparable average price data on most food products.
Previous indices were not truly comparable as they reflected different consumption patterns, the report said. “The data do nevertheless give an indication of considerable differences, but further work is needed to explain to what extent these data are a reflection of purchasing power differences or whether other factors are in play.”
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