Italian Journal of Food Safety 2019; volume 8:7713
Pre-packaged food products required to obtain all the information. The Business to Consumer (B2C) observation testified a substantial compli- Correspondence: Andrea Serraino, ance with the information obligations Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences, distance selling and informa- according to the European regulation. Via Tolara di Sopra, 50, Bologna, 40064 tion obligations in Italian mass Differently, when considering the availabil- Ozzano dell’Emilia, Italy. ity and readability of the information, from Tel.: +39.051.2097321 - Fax: +39.051.2097346. market retailers E-mail: [email protected] the analysis emerged that consumers have
1 2 to follow a path that is not immediate and Key words: e-commerce market, Business to Gaetano Liuzzo, Silvia Rolandi, intuitive. Conclusions are provided in rela- 3 3 Consumer (B2C) distance selling, Italian Andrea Serraino, Silvia Piva, tion to the presented research. Mass Market Retailers, information obliga- 3 Federica Giacometti tions. 1Local Health Unit, Modena; Contributions: the authors contributed equally. 2Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, 3 Pisa; Department of Veterinary Medical Introduction Conflict of interest: the authors declare no Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy In Italy the spread of online sales potential conflict of interest. reached 89.9% of the population between 11 and 74 years, with 43 million Italians Funding: none. declaring that they can access the Internet Received for publication: 23 July 2018. Abstract from fixed or mobile locations. The B2C e- Accepted for publication: 8 February 2019. commerce market in Italy generated a The supply and sale of food online are turnover of € 35.1 billion in 2017, growing This work is licensed under a Creative on the rise. The value of e-commerce in by 11% when compared to 2016. On this Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Europe has been estimated in 602 billion turnover, the food sector represents the International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). euros in 2017, 324 million people in the old 2.7% and it is among the sectors that have continent purchase online. In the European grown the most (+24%) (Casaleggio ©Copyright: the Author(s), 2019 onlyLicensee PAGEPress, Italy area, the Netherlands and Italy are the coun- Associati, 2018). Online purchases of food tries where the e-commerce market grew Italian Journal of Food Safety 2019; 8:7713 products from a supermarket have reached a doi:10.4081/ijfs.2019.7713 faster in the last five years. Nevertheless, in value that overcomes 200 million euros in Italy the spread of online shopping has 2017, an increase of over 50% if compareduse reached the 89.9% of the population to the previous year; in this segment, the between 11 and 74 years old. The access to main traditional GDO operators play a pre- shall be made available to the consumer the Internet, as declared by 43 million ponderant and constantly evolving role before the conclusion of the contract Italians, it is carried out from fixed or developing new services to offer to the con- through which the food products are pur- mobile locations. In terms of revenues the sumers such as the delivery at the given chased online and at the moment of the food sector recorded a +24% among the dif- address (prevailing formula) or the possibil- delivery of the purchased item. The only ferent sectors facing one of the higher ity to pick up the ordered products in selling difference between the two phases is repre- grows in terms of percentages. The regula- points (Click & Collect) (Nielsen, 2018). In sented by the date of minimum durability tory framework that disciplines the food addition to supermarket chains, there that shall be provided only when products products distance selling can be traced back important companies that are operating are delivered. It seems to be clear, on this to two fundamental pillars: the European exclusively online, such as Amazon Prime specific choice, the will of the European legislation on e-commerce on the one side Now, Supermercato24 and others (MBRES, legislator to strengthen the importance of and the food information to consumers on 2018). The legislative framework applica- the information to the consumers in a phase the other side. Under article 14 of the ble to food products distance selling finds that is prior to the conclusion of the contract Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011, the its normative reasoning in different legal (Rolandi, 2017). This attention might be European legislator states that the mandato- sources. The general regulation about B2C explained considering that these types of ry information, as indicated inNon-commercial article 9, (Business to Consumer) distance selling in trades are characterized by a lack of physi- shall be available to the consumer before the European legal system is provided in the cal and simultaneous presence of the con- the purchase is concluded and when the Directive 2011/83/UE, adopted in Italy with tracting parties that contributes to accentu- product is delivered. The study aims at ver- the Decree of 21 February 2014, n. 21. In ate the weak position of the consumers. In ifying: the level of compliance by Italians addition, specific requirements concerning fact, consumers are not able to view the MMR with the information regulation about the distance selling of food products are product or request added information and food products distance selling in relation to provided by the European legislation about consequently might be difficult to identify (a) the fulfillment of the obligation concern- food information to consumers. characteristics and qualities (Bolognini, ing mandatory provisions and (b) the fulfill- Nevertheless, the Regulation (EU) 2012). Lately other provisions concerning ment of the obligations concerning avail- 1169/2011 defines the “means of distance the distance sale of food products have been ability and readability of the information communication” as “any means which, introduced, in particular the Regulation provided. The research has been conducted without the simultaneous physical presence (EU) 2017/625 on official controls. The analyzing the websites of the ten largest of the supplier and the consumer, may be aforementioned regulation requires that the Italian MMR and in particular: if the used for the conclusion of a contract competent authorities “shall draw up and mandatory information were provided, the between those parties” (Article 2.2(u)) and keep an up-to-date a list of operators” (in availability of the information according to furnishes indication about “distance sell- the food sector) (see Article 10.2) and to the Regulation (EU) 1169/2011; the number ing” under Article 14. Based on this article, enable this, operators shall provide the com- of clicks needed to identify the food product the mandatory information indicated in petent authorities at least the following in the website and the number of clicks Article 9 of the Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, updated details (Article 15.5):
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their name and legal form; and national territory, the information presented Concerning the indication of the com- the specific activities carried out, on the home page concerning the “trader” pulsory information indicated in Article 9 of including activities undertaken by means of as defined by the Article 2.2 of the Directive Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 has been distance communication, and the places 2011/83/EU, the identification of the trader observed that are available to the consumer, under their control” according to Article 6.1 b), c), d) of the after the identification of a product, with a The same regulation also provides that Directive 2011/83/EU, the identification of total average click number of 3.8 (evalua- official controls might be conducted taking the “food business operator responsible for tion made on 8 online sites) (Table 3). samples of the goods offered for sale the food information” according to Article During this observation it emerged that through distance communication tech- 8.1 of the Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 (see when purchasing the product, the buyer can niques. DG SANCO document of 31 January 2013, add it to the cart to finalize the purchase page 2.6.1, page 7), the indication of the before reading the provided mandatory VAT number on the home page of the web- information. Moreover, it emerged that in site, even if the web site is used only for two cases the online shopping site does not Materials and Methods advertising purposes (resolution of the provide any mandatory information violat- Revenue Agency No. 60 of 16/05/2006, ing the EU regulation and exclusively indi- In recent years, in relation to food prod- Article 35 of Presidential Decree cates the legal name and the price, and in ucts B2C distance selling there has been a 633/1972). In the pre-contractual phase of one of the two cases it is present a warning real evolution with an increasing number of distance selling, the mandatory information to the buyer affirming that “the producers consumers willing to purchase using the on pre-packed food, as defined under can modify the composition of their prod- network and digital technologies and at the Article 9.1 of the Regulation (EU) ucts. Therefore, the packaging of the prod- same time the multiplication of producers 1169/2011, shall be available and easily uct may contain information different from and/or intermediaries that decided to accessible as indicated Article 12.1 of the those shown ...” it is indicated because the approach the new trade channel of the same Regulation, except, as previously said, offered product is showed as an image that online sale of food products. Lately the use for the indications referred to in Article also depicts the side of the pre-packed prod- of online supermarkets has increased, 9.1(f)). The availability of the information uct showing the label. allowing consumers to carry out the shop- and therefore its readability has been empir- only ping through the network and have the ically evaluated on the basis of the number items delivered or with the possibility to of clicks needed to reach and read all the pick them up in specific selected points. mandatory information available on the The purpose of this work is to assess the Discussion online web site that offers the food prod-use compliance with pre-contractual informa- In case of e-commerce through online ucts. To this end, some “numerical” charac- tion obligations in distance selling (B2C) of supermarkets the consumer usually con- teristics have been considered and identi- pre-packed food products utilizing as sam- cludes the contract with the seller that coin- fied in the number of clicks needed to reach ples for the survey the ten largest groups of cides with the supermarket. Here we get to the food product from the online shopping Italian large-scale retail trade. Using the an unclear situation trying to identify who site and number of clicks needed to obtain data collected in the Mediobanca report should be the subject in charge of providing all the information according to Article 9 of about the major Italian MMR (Mass Market the information according to the regulation. Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 (refers to pre- Retaiers) (MBRES, 2018) the following list It is useful to this regard to underline that packed food). All data referred to the ana- has been extracted: Coop, Selex, Conad, the DG SANCO, in the document lyzed websites were obtained on Esselunga, Carrefour, Eurospin, Auchan- “Questions and answers on the application 05/07/2018. SMA, Lidl Italy, Iper-Unes, Group Pam of Regulation (EU) n. 1169/2011 on the (please note that Eurospin and Group Pam provision of food information to con- both utilize Supermercato 24 and therefore sumers”, indicates that “the food business in the sheets are going to be listed at first ten operator responsible for food information is cases and then nine). On the basis of the Results the operator under whose name or business aforementioned list, online shopping servic- From the analysis of the indicated char- name the food is marketed. The operator es have been identified for each operatorNon-commercial by acteristics (see method section) among the must ensure the presence and the accuracy typing the words “on line shopping” and the ten chosen subjects it emerged that only of the food information provided” and name of the company operating in the large- four of them are also owners of the online moreover “where foods are offered for sale scale distribution, for example, on the inter- shopping website. The remaining, therefore by means of distance selling, the responsi- net search engine “Google Search”: “Conad six, are two independent online platforms bility for providing mandatory food infor- spending online”. In this way it was possi- and specifically Supermarket24 and mation before the purchase is concluded ble to obtain the following scheme shown in Primenow Amazon and in the other cases lies with the owner of the website”. This Table 1 in which for each “line leader” the online shopping website is owned by answer leads to at least two critical find- operating in the GDO the online shopping different subjects which do not correspond ings: firstly, the incorrect exclusive identifi- service and their web address were identi- to the MMR. All the indicated subjects, cation of distance selling with internet sales, fied. according to Article 8.1 of Regulation (EU) without considering also mail, e-mail, tele- For each retailer a sheet has been creat- 1169/2011 (see Table 2), can be defined as phone, telefax as being all different types of ed identifying a series of characteristics “traders” . Furthermore, referring to the distance selling; secondly the lack of corre- related to the structure of the web site and indication of the VAT number/tax code in spondence between the given answer (Q&A the information provided: the name of the the home page, according to the resolution DG SANCO) and the content of Article 8 of company, the name of the online shopping n. 60 of the Revenue Agency, it has been Regulation (EU) 1169/2011. The aforemen- service, the web address of the online shop- observed that it is respected in seven cases tioned article refers in fact to the operators ping service, the characteristics of the serv- out of nine, indicating the number in the in the food sector, a category to which it is ice, the dissemination of the service on the lower part of the home page. difficult to trace the owner of the website
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(Bolognini, 2012). mandatory information. In facts generally in mation. As affirmed under Article 3.1 of practical cases, once the professional has Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 food informa- provided the information about the name of tion the information should guarantee the the product and the related price appearing possibility for the consumer to make in the same field of view, the buyer is Conclusions informed choices and to make a safe use of authorized to make the purchase. On the Although distance selling cannot be the purchased food. A question arises about one hand shall be also noticed that it partial- considered a recent market takeover, the if and in which terms those two require- ly complies with Article 13.5 of Regulation advent of the Internet has facilitated the use ments are met if there is the possibility to (EU) 1169/2011 and on the other it makes of this method to conclude contracts in the allow the consumer to make the purchase “easy” the purchase without necessarily food sector. The analysis shows that what even before having visualized and read the being forced to read the mandatory infor- disposed under Article 14 of the Regulation
Table 1. Italian MMR (Mass Market Retailers) an online grocery. No. MMR Affiliates Online store WEB site 1 COOP Coop alleanza 3.0 Easycoop www.EasyCoop.com 2 Selex Il gigante; Mercato; Emisfero; Dok; Iper-super-pan; Famila Cosicomodo www.cosicomodo.it 3 Conad Altuoservizio www.Altuoservizio.conad.it 4 Esselunga Esselungacasa www.Esselungacasa.it Cliccaevai www.cliccaevai.esselunga.it 5 Carrefour Myshop www.Myshop.carrefour.it 6 Eurospin Supermercato24only www.Supermercato24.it 7 Auchan-SMA Shop.auchan www.shop.auchan.it 8 Lidl Italia My Lidl Shop www.mylidlshop-lidl.it 9 Iper-Unes* U2; U! Amazon Prime www.primenow.amazon.it 10 Gruppo PAM Pam; Panorama Supermercato24use www.Supermercato24.it
Table 2. Identification of the responsible subjects for the information. Denomination Website online grocery VAT number Website ownership/subject in charge of the information Easycoop www.EasyCoop.com Yes Digitails.r.l. Cosicomodo www.cosicomodo.it Yes SelexGruppoCommerciales.p.a., Altuoservizio www.Altuoservizio.conad.it Yes Conad del Tirrenos.c. Esselungacasa www.Esselungacasa.it Yes EsselungaS.p.A. Cliccaevai www.cliccaevai.esselunga.it Myshop www.Myshop.carrefour.it No GS SPA, S.S.C. Societa' SviluppoCommerciale SRL e DiperdìS.r.l Supermercato24 www.Supermercato24.it Yes S24 S.r.l., Shop.auchan www.shop.auchan.it Yes Chronodrive Italia S.r.l., My Lidl Shop www.mylidlshop-lidl.it Yes Lidlitalias.r.l Amazon Prime www.primenow.amazon.itNon-commercial No Amazon Europe Core SARL
Table 3. The number of total clicks needed to get to the obligatory information to read them. Denomination N° of clicks needed to identify N° of click needed to obtain the information N° of total clicks the food item for the online grocery provided according to art. 9 of Reg.(UE) 1169/2011 Easycoop 2 6 8 Cosicomodo 2 2 4 Altuoservizio Esselungacasa 2 4 6 Cliccaevai Myshop 1 5 6 Supermercato24 1 0* 1 Shop.auchan 3 2 5 My Lidl Shop NV NV NV Amazon Prime 1 0* 1 *No mandatory information provided according to Article9 of the Regulation (UE) 1169/2011 except for the product name, net quantity and price. NV: not assessable
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(EU) 1169/2011 represents only a small part European Commission, 2011. REGULA- Regulations (EC) No 854/2004 and of the entire applicable regulatory frame- TION (EU) No 1169/2011 OF THE (EC) No 882/2004 of the work. Despite this there are several unclear EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF European Parliament and of the issues that emerged from the present con- THE COUNCIL of 25 October 2011 on Council, Council ducted research in relation to the content of the provision of food information to Directives 89/608/EEC, 89/662/EEC, Article 14. In particular it emerged that to it consumers, amending Regulations (EC) 90/425/EEC, 91/496/EEC, 96/23/EC, is not clear which is the subject that is in No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 96/93/EC and 97/78/EC and Council charge of providing the information accord- of the European Parliament and of the Decision 92/438/EEC (Official ing to the regulation. Moreover, it is not Council, and repealing Commission Controls Regulation). In: Official clear how this information shall be present- Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Journal, L95/60, 07/04/2017 ed and what under these particular circum- Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Bolognini S, 2012. La Disciplina della stances could be considered accessible and Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive Comunicazione Business to consumer easy to read when considering the number 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament nel Mercato Agro-alimentare Europeo, of clicks that the consumers have to make and of the Council, Commission G. Giappicchelli Editore, Torino, p.116- before to get to the information. Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC 117 and Commission Regulation (EC) No Additionally, it emerged that not in all the Casaleggio Associati, 2018, Rapporto E- 608/2004. In: Official Journal, L304/54, situations observed there is a general Commerce in Italia 2018, Report 22/11/2011 respect able at furnishing the mandatory Maggio 2018 n°16 European Commission, 2017. REGULA- information to the buyer. It is certainly Nielsen, 2018, ‘What’s In-Store for Online TION (EU) 2017/625 OF THE EURO- desirable for the future the intervention of Grocery Shopping. Omni channel PEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE the European legislator and probably clear Strategies to Reach Crossover COUNCIL of 15 March 2017 on offi- guidelines might be useful. Shoppers’ (January 2017) 21 cial controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of
Non-commercial
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