ISSN: 2278-3369 International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics Available online at www.managementjournal.info RESEARCH ARTICLE Analysis of Consumer Organisations in Europe Csilla Margit Csiszar* Institute of Business Sciences, Faculty of Economic,University of Miskolc, Miskolc Hungary. *Corresponding Author: E-mail: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The research is concerned with the institutional systems of the consumer protection and their evaluation made by the population. It analyses three institutional systems in Europe, like Hungary, the United Kingdom and Germany as typical examples of the three specific institutional structures. The study introduces the European practice of governmental subsidies in consumer protection. It analysis the public’s judgement on the operating institutional systems on European level, assuming relationship among the amounts of state subsidy devoted for consumer protection by the European Union member countries, the level of trust laid in the institutional systems of consumer protection and the degree of satisfaction with them. Keywords: Consumer organisations, Consumer protection, Consumer satisfaction, Consumer confidence. Introduction In the member states of the European Union In most cases we can meet with the questions of nearly 500 million customers need to be provided consumer protection in scientific literature in by relatively standardised, high-level consumer legal context, as the legislative activity can protection. To make it possible, a system with primarily be considered as consumer protection appropriate tools and institutions is required that activity. We can speak secondarily about those shows different characteristics from country to activities which are dealing with enforcement and country. The aim of this study is to shortly execution of legal rules concerning consumer describe the various structures of consumer protection, such as supervision, consultation, and protection institutions operating in Europe on the education and information provision. In a broader one hand and to analyse how satisfied the public interpretation, activities of consumer interest is with the organizations and how much are they examination, interest representation, situation trust in them on the other. The part of this study examination, information collection as well as dealing with organisational structures is based on assistance in creation of consumer protection scientific literature and on legal processing, while legislation also relate to this term. the analysis of public judgement is based on secondary information, on the analysis of The term of institution needs to be explained as Eurobarometer and Flashbarometer survey well, as the domains of consumer protection use it results made by the European Commission. The in many different interpretations. The various assumption of the research is that the amount of possibilities of interpretation of the definition can state subsidy granted for consumer protection be summarised below based on the work of influences the level of satisfaction with both the Farkas. In an economic point of view, an governmental and non-governmental institutional institution can mean an organisation or a systems as well as the level of trust placed in subsystem of the society. In a legal point of view, them. The assumption assumed that a higher under institution we mean mainly legal amount of subsidy can result a more effective institutions marking specific systems of the supervisory-, control activity of consumer regulations and their execution. In a sociological protection and can result a higher level of point of view, the observable regularity of consumer protection interest which is also behaviour and the probability of attitudes and perceivable by the consumers. willingness for interpretation can also be called institution. The present study applies the term of Interpretation of Consumer Protection institution for organisations of consumer Activity and Institution protection and for authorities. Csilla Margit Csiszar| Nov.-Dec. 2012 | Vol.1 | Issue 6|124-132 124 Available online at www.managementjournal.info legislation in force by applying the state Institutional Structures in Europe administration system – considering the fact that they Consumers’ interests and rights are numerous and have a very significant resource demand to perform diverse by their nature, therefore the connecting these activities. It is typical for non-governmental institutions also form a complex system differentiated bodies that they participate in establishing consumer by countries. In the countries of Europe, as a result of protection policies and they help to explore problems of different way of development, three typical consumers by gathering information, they perform institutional structures have been developed to education activity concerning consumer protection, perform consumer protection activity [1]. even can initiate procedures at court and operate consumer consulting offices. In the developed countries In performing consumer protection activities the of Europe, these organisations are recognised and governmental system of institutions is in the subsidized by the governments. Financial instruments forefront. Such kind of system operates for example required for their maintenance and operation are in the Scandinavian states (in Finland, Sweden, primarily provided by the state. Norway) or in Denmark. The system of non-governmental organizations is in Table 1 shows the amount of subsidies provided for the forefront in performing consumer protection consumer protection by the national governments in activities. Such structure operates for example in 2006. It shows the data of countries sorted by the Germany. amount of subsidies for one thousand people in The mixed institutional system. Here the consumer descending order. The highest amounts per capita are protection activities are performed by governmental provided in Luxembourg and in Austria. The and non-governmental bodies together. This kind of concentration of subsidies can be described by the system operates for example in Belgium, France and number of subsidized bodies and the amount of subsidy Spain. per organisation. The amount of subsidy per organisation is the highest in Luxembourg, in Austria In each country the three basic factors of consumer and in the Netherlands. It shall be noted that the policy are the information, the education and the number of subsidized organisations in these countries protection according to Torelli’s matrix. In the most are also relatively low. France and Belgium are special Western European countries the governmental because the number of subsidized institutions and the consumer protection ensures the enforcement of amount of subsidy per organisation are also high in consumer protection both countries. Table 1: State-provided subsidies for consumer protection in 2006 Amounts of Number of Amount of state- Amount of subsidies state-provided consumer provided subsidies Countries per thousand subsidies protection per organization people (€) (thousand €s) organizations (pcs) (thousand €s) Luxembourg 830 1622 1 830 Austria 2235 266 3 745 Slovenia 374 182 6 62 Belgium 1673 153 15 112 France 7379 113 33 224 Sweden 965 102 3 322 Finland 521 97 2 261 Hungary 946 95 25 38 Czech Republic 750 71 10 75 Estonia 51 38 5 10 The Netherlands 438 26 1 438 Lithuania 72 22 7 10 Greece 250 22 42 6 Portugal 200 19 13 15 Poland 556 15 5 111 Ireland 65 15 1 65 Latvia 30 13 1 30 Slovakia 70 13 7 10 Bulgaria 30 4 10 3 Romania 40 2 1 40 Malta 0 0 0 0 Source: own edition based on Consumers in Europe.*Data of Cyprus, Denmark, The United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Spain are not available Csilla Margit Csiszar| Nov.-Dec. 2012 | Vol.1 | Issue 6|124-132 125 Available online at www.managementjournal.info (Fig. 1) Basically, the governmental institutional The Institutional System of Consumer system is in the forefront, however the non- Protection in Hungary governmental organisations are involved in many The institutional system of consumer protection activities, therefore the situation of Hungary is a in Hungary is based on three pillars. The complex good example for presenting a mixed structure of institutional system is divided into governmental, institutional system. non-governmental and self-governmental bodies. Fig. 1: The structure of the hungarian institutional system of consumer protection Source: own edition, 2012 nationwide-authorised, purely consumer The basic pillar is the sphere of governmental protection oriented governmental body, the institutions, which comprises a structured Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection institutional system differentiated by spheres of (HACP). The institution itself is financially self- functions. In the recent years the composition of managing, a budgetary body that has full the governmental consumer protection system authority over the state budget (Table 2.), which was severally restructured. Currently, the consists of a central institution and local Ministry for National Economy – as one of the inspectorates. Its activities primarily are to legislative organization – is responsible for control and supervise the enforcement of consumer protection – under which control provisions included in the Act on Customer several governmental consumer protection bodies Protection. [2]. belong. The biggest of all of these bodies is the Table 2: The budget outlines of the hungarian authority for consumer protection (Million forints) Descriptions/Years