Cases handled by the European Consumer Centres' Network in 2011 remained consistently high: more than 70 000 consumers received free help and advice. Year on year, the pattern of complaints remained basically the same. The transport sector triggered the most complaints (32% of which 20% related to air transport services). Online purchasing was the selling method which caused most problems for consumers (56.6% of complaints).
In 2011, more than half of the complaints were resolved amicably or passed on to other organisations: 41% of the complaints were successfully closed after the ECCs reached an amicable settlement with the trader and 13% were passed on to other organisations.
Compared to previous years, ECCs increasingly promoted ADR entities (to help solve problems out of court): 62.5% of the complains transferred to other organisations or agencies were passed on to ADR entities (compared to 50% in 2009 and 58.5% in 2010).
