Commission Reports on Functioning of Liberalised Retail Electricity Markets

On 15 November 2010, the Commission published the results of its in-depth market analysis into the retail electricity sector commenced in February 2009. The initiative stemmed from the findings of the Commission's Consumer Markets Scoreboard, which indicated that there were low levels of consumer satisfaction and little consumer switching in the electricity markets.

Evidence for the study was gathered in all EU countries throughout 2009 by way of general market research, consumer opinion surveys and a "mystery shopping" exercise.

The main findings are as follows:

• in 62% of cases, mystery shoppers were able to find less expensive tariffs. The number of cheaper offers was highest in the UK;