The Bundeskartellamt has encountered deficiencies in Internet comparison portals in many cases. A study of numerous comparison portals from the areas of travel, energy, insurance, telecommunications and finance have substantiated the suspicion of consumer rights violations in some points, said the authority in Bonn.
„The consumer can not always rely on actually finding the best offer on a comparison portal,“ criticized the President of the Bundeskartellamt Andreas Mundt at the presentation of the results. Consumers often would not know how the order of the search results and the recommendations of the comparison portals came about in detail. „There is a lack of transparency,“ Mundt complained.
36 portals examined
The Cartel Office had taken a closer look at 36 comparison portals. „Many comparative information is accurate and reputable,“ Mundt said. In many cases, however, there are also behaviors that can lead consumers astray. For example, fees or commissions paid by the providers would have an influence on the portal’s default display of search results.
In some industries, the comparison portals would have a low market coverage and sometimes represented only a selection of less than 50 percent of the existing offer in the market. Many portals did not make a standalone comparison, but only accessed the records or tariff calculator of other portals.
Affected portals must give their opinion
The affected portals can now comment on the findings of the investigation – until 4 February. After an evaluation, the Bundeskartellamt intends to publish a concluding report on its investigation of the comparison portals in the coming year.
The agency wanted to enlighten with the comprehensive investigation possible violations of consumer law. More and more people are collecting information via online comparison portals and are making decisions about booking travel or new electricity contracts on this basis.
