More than 70,000 complaints to companies being mapped from May to December 2022 in Spain and Italy thanks to the European CICLE project

January 31, 2023 – More than 70,000 are the number of reports detected at the European level, 25,000 in Italy, between May and December 2022, for problems with the provision of services, products and more: these are the results of CICLE, presented today at the event held in Brussels at the headquarters of the consumer organization Test Achats. The project, in which Altroconsumo participated together with the Spanish consumer organization Ocu, aimed precisely at improving market surveillance by strengthening cooperation between consumer organizations and institutions.

Thanks to the European co-funding, Altroconsumo has actually been able to enhance Reclama Facile, the platform on which complaints can be sent to companies, by improving the methodology by which it monitors the complaints: through a series of filters and categorization of the claims, the Organization is able to better analyze the data and thus more easily identify cases on which to react, as occurred with the AdBlue case of the Citröen cars.

Through this project, Altroconsumo has tackled violations of consumer law at the national and EU level, monitoring complaints according to the nature of the problem, identifying what the management trends are used by brands, and also mapping the lack of response. In addition, by supporting the CPC network (Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation (europa.eu), with alerts coming from consumer reports, the Organization has helped improve market surveillance.

Surveys done by Altroconsumo and Ocu show that there are more problems, and consequently more consumer complaints, in these sectors: consumer goods, for 32% of reports in Italy and 24% in Spain. Next are telecommunications and postal services, for 17% (Italy) and 20% (Spain), respectively. The other categories most reported by consumers are transportation services, for 12% in our country and 13% in Spain, and water and energy supply 11% and 15%, respectively.

The top 10 companies with the most complaints in Italy between May and December 2022 are Fastweb (946 complaints), Wind Tre (823), Mondo Convenienza (568), Sda (547), Poste Italiane (534), Ryanair (486), Amazon (483), Ticketone (480), Wizzair (363), and Leroy Merlin (350).

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Source: APA-OTS