"Power to the Consumers!"

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 17th Oct 2000

Diana Wallis, Lib Dem Euro-MP for Yorkshire & the Humber, and ELDR Co-ordinator on the European Parliament Committee of Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, called for more power to be given to consumers to drive up standards of service in Internet trade.

Attending 'Consumers at the Heart of Europe' - a reception organised by the Consumers Association in the Parliament - Diana Wallis drew attention to recent reports that people are less than satisfied with the service they receive when buying goods online.

"A trading standards report estimates that forty percent of goods ordered over the Internet do not arrive on time and nearly one in every five orders don't turn up at all!

"This clearly isn't good enough. It's not good for consumers and it's not good for the businesses, who will lose trade if people don't trust them to deliver."

Diana Wallis MEP is looking into new methods of settling disputes when things go wrong.

"Customers trying to get their money back often have a tough time. The total cost to consumers of trying to sort things out has been estimated by the Office of Fair Trading to be in the region of £8billion a year. That's nearly £180 per adult in the UK every year.

"Clearly the way forward is to drive up standards and have a cheaper, simpler system that is easier for people to access."