The European Commission investigates whether the websites offering consumer credit are offering consumers the information to which they are entitled under EU consumer law before signing a consumer credit contract. According to the results published by the Commission, 70% of sites will need a further investigation in relation to about suspected irregularities.

The European Commission published the EU-wide investigation results conducted by the national enforcement authorities that checked more than 500 websites across the 27 Member States plus Norway and Iceland, in order to find out whether consumers are receiving the information to which they are entitled under EU consumer law before signing a consumer credit contract. They flagged 70% (393) of sites for further investigation in relation to the following main problems: the advertising did not include the required standard information; the offers omitted key information that is essential for making a decision; the costs were presented in a misleading way. In October 2011, the Consumer Markets Scoreboard showed that services markets are the most likely to be failing consumers across the EU.

In addition, six countries (Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden) conducted a deeper investigation on 57 of the sites checked – the Sweep Plus exercise. The investigation was conducted to check compliance with consumer rules including payment arrangement, complaint handling and terms and conditions. The main problems related to pre-contractual information and contract terms. The sweep operation checked in particular how business is applying the Consumer Credit Directive (recently transposed in Member States), which aims to make it easier for consumers to understand and compare credit offers.

In the coming weeks and months business operators will be contacted by the national authorities and asked to provide clarifications or correct their websites. Failure to do so, depending on the national legislation which is applicable, can result in legal action leading to fines or even closure of the websites.