5.
OVERVIEW OF CASES HANDLED BY ECCs
5.1 Volume of cases In 2008, the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) handled over 62 000 requests from consumers for information and advice on cross-border shopping (both in person and online). The facts and figures presented in this chapter are based on case-handling information from the IT tool used by the ECCs. The number of cases dealt with by ECC-Net in 2008 showed an increase of over 22.85 % compared with 2007.
Trend over the years — Total number of cases 80000
60000
40000 51691
50930
62569
2006
2007
2008
20000
0
Volume of cases per country (2007-2008) 10000 2007 Total of cases
2008 Total of cases
8000 6000 4000 2000 0
AT BE BG CY CZ DE DK EE ES
FI
FR GR HU IE
IS
IT
LT LU LV MT NL NO PL PT RO SE
SI SK UK
This increase in 2008 was particularly visible in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Slovenia. The substantial increase in the number of cases handled by ECC UK was due to the fact that ECC UK opened in August 2007 and therefore dealt with only a few cases in that year. Consequently, 2008 was the first full year of operation of this new centre.
2008 ANNUAL REPORT || The European Consumer Centres Network || 15