Bringing the official statistics
closer to consumer research
Breda Kutin
MIPOR director, ZPS president.
Contact e-mail: zps@zps.si
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
Mercator Hipermarket
Ljubljana Šiška
3,99
Mercator
Koseze
3,99
3,99
3,49
Spar Hipermarket
Slovenčeva
Tuš BTC
3,99
3,33
3,66
3,00
2,00
1,00
0,00
E. Leclerc
Ljubljana
10. - 16. 1. 2008
3,98
Hofer
Lidl
drobno mleto mešano
meso, Strašek
3,99
predpakiranomešano mleto
meso; Chira, poreklo
Nemčija
5.10.2007
predpakirano sveže mleto
meso Okus podeželja;
proizvajaLedas.d.o.o., Celje
6,93
postreženo že pripravljeno
mešano mleto meso, E.
Leclerc
3,79
predpakirano mešano mleto
meso E. Leclerc
3,79
5,15
postreženo že pripravljeno
mešano mleto meso
4,00
5,15
postreženo mešano mleto
meso
8,00
predpakirano mešano mleto
meso, za Spar proizvaja
Meso Kamnik
4,99
6,73
postreženo že pripravljeno
mešano mleto meso
Last in: muscle
proteins
postreženo že pripravljeno
mešano mleto meso
4,99
predpakirano mešano mleto
meso;proizvaja MDK
7,00
predpakiranomešano mleto
meso;za Mercator proizvaja
MIP
5,00
predpakirano mešano mleto
meso;za Mercator proizvaja
MDK
Cena na kilogram
Price movement of minced meat from 5. 10. 2007 do 28. 2. 2008
Best result in:
muscle proteins
28.2.2008
6,34
6,00
5,33
4,59
4,99
4,17
Eurospin
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. eshopping, 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 zps@zps.si.