Unwanted advertising calls remain the main annoyance, complaints are decreasing
Consumers and businesses filed fewer complaints about unfair competition in 2016. This is the first decline since 2012. The majority of complaints still involve unsolicited sales calls.
At almost 24,000, they account for the lion's share of the 25,875 complaints received by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in 2016. Health insurance companies were often the troublemakers. Other complaints concerned generally misleading business practices, address book fraud and complaints in the mail order business. The majority of complaints came from consumers. Only 866 were from companies.
The total number of complaints is 11% lower than in 2015, but Seco still describes the level as high. It is too early to speak of a trend reversal. Seco published the data in an article in the magazine Die Volkswirtschaft, which is published by the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER).
Seco sent warning letters to 76 companies and filed criminal charges in 27 cases. 15 complaints concern misleading business practices and 6 unsolicited advertising calls despite a star rating. The remaining complaints relate to advertising trips, pyramid schemes, advertising faxes and private bribery. (SDA)
