Greeks’ consumer conscience largely inactive
Greek consumers rank bottom among European Union citizens in terms of knowing their rights, according to the 2017 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard that the European Commission published on Tuesday. This poor knowledge of their rights is to a great extent the reason behind their comparative lack of consumer awareness and their failure to claim what they are entitled to.
Of course the low consumer conscience level is not due to retailers treating their customers perfectly – quite the contrary: Greek retailers rank third from bottom among their EU counterparts when it comes to knowing the rights of consumers, according to the same survey, which also found Greece to have the third highest rate of consumers (33.7 percent) in the bloc who are exposed to unfair commercial practices by domestic retailers.
Almost half of Greeks (47.3 percent) are unlikely to protest when their rights are violated, against an EU average of 27.1 percent. The minimal awareness of consumer rights and the fact there are very few active and esteemed consumer associations in Greece leave local consumers flummoxed when they run into a serious problem in their transactions with retailers. Just 36.4 percent of Greeks trust consumer associations, the survey found.
