Today the European Consumer Centres Network, ECC-Net, published a report entitled "Can I trust the trust mark?". The report investigates how online trust mark schemes achieve their objectives of guaranteeing that their members offer good commercial practices, security and privacy for consumers.
The main outcome of the web survey is that consumers value trust marks but lack knowledge about their characteristics and reliability. In the study 573 European consumers from 19 countries participated. Furthermore, the ECC-Net analysed detailed characteristics of the 54 trust mark schemes currently existing in the EU from a consumer perspective. The results indicate that the degree of comprehensiveness of these schemes varies considerably, both across countries and within a single country. The ECC-Net recommends that trust mark operators develop pan-European best practices and provide consumers with more information about their schemes.
More information:
Report http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/information_sources/docs/trust_mark_report_2013_en.pdf
Information sheet for consumers:
Source: European Consumer Centres Network, ECC-Net