Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Services Standards
development by way of granting European citizens the right to settle anywhere
in the European Community, at least as long as they are financially
independent.
From a consumer perspective transport issues and removal of furniture fit into
such a scheme, although tourists do not require the services of furniture
removal companies and the number of the elderly who move to southern
Europe may not suffice to create such a demand. The much bigger market
seems to be those citizens in the European Community who change their
workplace and need support in transporting their household from one Member
State to the next. In this respect consumers benefit from initiatives undertaken
at the national level, however, they are not leading the process of
standardisation. 288
c) European Commission induced consumer services
The European Commission has not yet taken a clear stand. The standardisation
of postal services accomplishes the initiative in the service sector. The mandate
to elaborate the above-mentioned set of technical standards results from the
European policy to liberalise, to privatise and to “Europeanise” postal services
all over Europe 289 . The vast majority of the standards on postal services are the
direct result of sending more letters around Europe and ensure that they arrive
safely and on time. However, consumer-to-consumer mail is decreasing but
business-to-business and business-to-consumer mail is increasing.
The first mandate that affects consumers directly is M/378 on customer contact
centres. In a world where consumers order products even Europe-wide via the
internet, after-sales services are changing. The consumer can no longer go to
the shop where he or she bought the product. He is bound to contact the
service provider via distant telecommunications means. The service provider,
however, tends to outsource after-sales services, be it in the form of mere
advice on how to handle the product, or be it on how to solve possible
consumer complaints. In this respect a new type of service has emerged that
produces a lot of difficulties to consumers and maybe also to business.
288 See with regard to the need for genuine consumer led standardisation work, Chapter VII,
III.
289 See for the very same development in the network industries, telecommunications, gas,
electricity and transport, Chapter II, I, 3.
91