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The European Commission on Wednesday launched a major probe into websites that sell electronic goods.

From EBS:
At a press conference today in Brussels, Meglena Kuneva, Member of the EC in charge of Consumer Protection, announced the results of an EU-wide investigation – involving 26 Member States and Norway and Iceland – into misleading advertising and unfair practices on websites selling consumer electronic goods.

The clampdown covered 369 websites selling six of the most popular electronic goods to consumers in the EU – digital cameras, mobile phones, personal music players, DVD players, computer equipment and game consoles. It covered 200 of the biggest websites selling electronic equipment in the EU as well as more than 100 websites which were targeted on the basis of consumer complaints.

The results of the checks carried out in May this year show that 55% of the websites investigated showed irregularities in particular relating to: misleading information about consumer rights; misleading information about the total cost of the product; or incomplete contact details for the trader.

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Title
00:00:05
General view of the press conference
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SOUNDBITE (English) by Meglena Kuneva, Member of the EC in charge of Consumer Protection: the results of our investigation were very disappointing. We found that consumers are being let (down) very badly. At this first stage, national authorities detected problems in 55% of the websites under the review.
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Cutaway of press
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SOUNDBITE (English) by Meglena Kuneva: under EU rules, if you buy something on the internet, the trader must clearly inform you that you have the right for at least 7 days, longer in some countries, to change your mind, without giving any reason, send the product back and get your money back. Actually, this is the difference when you buy in a shop and when you see the item compared to when you buy online. So you have an additional privilege, a little bit ymetric on the side of the consumers, but rightly so because you are shopping online. But on many websites, customers were either not told about this right at all, or even worse were misinformed. For instance many websites indicated that the trader only accepts the product back if it is faulty, or only provides store credit but not a cash refund.
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Cutaway
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SOUNDBITE (English) by Meglena Kuneva: so after this one, the second most common problem was misleading or incomplete information about the total cost which is a very important feature when you decide to choose to buy online. I was shocked to find that this was the case for 45% problematic websites.
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Cutaway
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SOUNDBITE (English) by Meglena Kuneva: if you live in France and want to buy a digital camera from a Belgian website, you should be able to find clear information on the delivery rates to France before you agree to buy the camera. In many cases, however, customers could not find such information anywhere.
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Cutaway
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SOUNDBITE (English) by Meglena Kuneva: now the enforcement phase starts. In the coming months, national enforcement authorities will contact the companies managing the websites concerned and ask them to clarify the situation or bring the sites in line with the law. We have learned from experience that even a simple contact from the national authorities often triggers very good results and traders clean up their websites. Otherwise, companies can be taken to the court or face financial penalties under national law.
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Cutaway
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Duration : 0:3:35

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Greenpeace has been investigating the immoral and illegal e-waste dumping in developing countries since 2002. After China, India, Pakistan and Ghana, this is the story of how one very broken TV managed to avoid being tested and recycled according to EU regulations and instead ended up in Nigeria as “second hand goods”

Find out more about the Greenpeace investigation – http://www.greenpeace.org/bearingwitness/nigeria

Duration : 0:3:23

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Here in the outskirts of China’s financial capital, Shanghai, it is the country’s migrant workers who will bear the brunt of falling demand in major markets in Europe and North America.

This year, many have left for home early and may not come back to work in the factories, which are being shut down. But some have chosen not to return home and are looking to save their money and hoping for better luck in the new year.

Thirty-three-year-old Xu Manxiang (pron: she-man-sheeang) has just been laid off from his job at a nearby electronics factory.

[Xu Manxiang, Unemployed]:
“I am feeling the impact now that I have lost my job. Due to the economic crisis, it can be quite costly to go home for the Chinese New Year. After thinking about it, I felt I should be more thrifty and spend less money. The main thing is that we thought we should spend less money and try to ride out this crisis.”
    
Xu is one of around 200 million migrant workers in China, whose number is greater than the population of Brazil. They have provided the cheap labor underpinning the proliferation of China-made goods worldwide. An estimated 10 million migrant workers have lost their jobs in recent months.

The Xu family says that if things get worse they will be ready to pack their bags and go home for good.

[Wu Xiongjin, Xu's Wife]:
“Some of them said that if orders are less next year, the factory might lay off some workers. I think that if they retrench me and give me compensation, I would go home to work at a farm or do something else while I tend to my child. Now if all of a sudden, I leave due to my own will, I wouldn’t feel too good about it. I’ll think about this after the Chinese New Year.”

With the New Year on January 26, thousands of migrant workers are waiting patiently to buy tickets with heavy hearts, many wondering whether they will return.

Duration : 0:2:13

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Improved demand for electronic goods saw technology shares rally in Asia. Tech-heavy Taiwan has been one of the best-performing stock markets in the world this year. And Taiwan shares are leading the rise across Asia as companies such as chipmaker UMC jump on signs of improved demand. Japan’s Nikkei also gained today after the government announced a bigger-than-expected stimulus package of $154 billion—that’s about 3 percent of Japan’s GDP. The spending package will target eco-friendly electronics, giving a boost to companies like Sony and Panasonic. And some of the economic data form the region also provided hope for a recovery. Japanese core machinery orders posted a surprising increase of 1.4 percent. But over in Australia, there’s been a slowdown. Data shows that the country shed jobs at the fastest pace in six years, while unemployment jumped by the most since 1991.

Duration : 0:1:2

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STORY:
Sony announced it will cut almost three billion dollars in costs by 2010 and consolidate two LCD TV plants in Japan into one, that move alone shedding 1,000 contract staff.

The electronics maker stunned investors by posting of a three billion dollar operating loss, its biggest ever, due to what Sony’s chief executive Howard Stringer called the depression.

[Howard Stringer, Sony Chief Executive]:
“We’re in the worst economic depression in my life time; economic recession, we’re not supposed to call it a depression yes, but it feels depressing, and that’s that’s my primary responsibility and whereas we are anticipating a high profit in October, but we’ve obviously lost a lot. We have to move in a hurry and that’s our responsibility and my trame.”

Last month Sony laid out restructuring plans which included curbing investment, closing plants and cutting 16,000 jobs – this figure is now expected to rise as Sony makes further savings.

Trade within East Asia has collapsed as global demand for goods such as cars and electronics shrivels, prompting leading manufacturers to slash production at an unprecedented rate and lay off workers.

Carmaker Hyundai says its quarterly earnings fell 28 percent and LG Electronics lost half a billion dollars due to big shortfalls at its flat-screens and weak mobile phone sales.

In another sign of the crunch in the tech sector, Intel Corp is closing plants in Malaysia and the Philippines, along with its remaining factory in Silicon Valley, cutting around 6,000 jobs.

Unsurprisingly, Japanese exports plunged a record 35 percent in December year on year battered not only by falling demand but also a soaring yen which rose to a 13 and a half year high against the dollar.

In China annual economic growth slowed to a seven-year low of nine percent, ending a five-year-streak of double-digit growth.

And neighboring South Korea is heading for its first recession since the regional financial crisis a decade ago after its economy contracted sharply last quarter.

But despite the dismal data, Asian stocks rose as investors snapped up beaten down bank shares and pinned their hopes on policy action to support growth.

Duration : 0:2:20

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Powered by the present boom in the consumer goods industry and the overall feel good factor in the economy, U.S. tradition based Leonard has set out an ambitious growth plan for the Indian market.
“By middle of the next year, we should have the manufacturing facility in place. The total investment involved in setting up the plant will be to the extent of Rs. 20 crore”, Mr. ar said.
Leonard India is a 50-50 joint venture between the $95 million U.S.tradition Leonard and Sita international, a subsidiary of the Rs 1,500 crore Sita group.
Mr. ar said the company is at present the entire range.” Our plant will have the capacity of rolling out 25,000 water dispensers, 5000 washing machines, 5000 micro-wave ovens and 2,000 refrigerators per month”, he said. “Leonard appliances are conceptualized and developed in America, marketed extensively around the world and now being launched in India “, he said .Mr. ar said the company was working on a distinct positioning strategy in the market which is dominated by Korean manufacturers.
“We would like to groom our brand as a brand from U.S. tradition –a country characterized by perfection in everything”, he said .globally, Leonard has a total product range of 178 spread across the seven product categories. In India the company had so far launched nine models of water dispensers, four refrigerators, washing machine and some models of water cooler.
The CEO said there was enough space in the Indian consumer durables industry despite the apparent cut-throat competition among a few major companies.” Every company claims that its products are exclusive. Nothing in this world is exclusive in nature”, Mr. ar said .
“our brand tag line is perfect home maker. Be it perfect cooling, effortless ironing, or a perfect entertainment series. Name it and we are ready with a perfect package for the discerning homemaker”. He said.
Mr. ar believed freebie campaigns do not really help in the shoring up the sales of any product even though Leonard India offered special customer packages on Diwali, like free gifts and combo offers. “This was more to establish a the brand equity”, he explained.
The company may also consider getting into event sponsorship in the near future. “Two things that the people of this country are mad about are Bollywood and cricket and these are the areas where the maximum brand presence in from of sponsorship is observed”. he said.

Duration : 0:0:31

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Watch Jon Abt and Marc Cook from Abt Electronics talk to Carina Soon from Fox News about the current state of the durable goods industry on Fox News and consumer buying confidence. Durable goods fell as a whole, but if you look at the appliance & electronic portion, it actually rose.

Duration : 0:3:16

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ZHANG:
Economic meltdown is having a mixed effect on the sale of luxury brands in India. The crisis has put a dent in consumers’ spending power.

STORY:
Ajit Joshi, the CEO and marketing director of Chroma, a consumer electronics retail chain has some positive views on this global situation.

[Ajit Joshi, Chroma CEO]:
“As far as my knowledge of economics is concerned, there is no recession in the country when you have 5 percent year on year growth in your GDP. Recession happens only when you start showing the negative role. There is a slowdown but it has not come to ‘Chroma’ (a retail brand) as yet. It has come to certain pockets of the industries. The builders and their community are rolling out of the stores. We see a little slowdown coming in to the real estate but we haven’t seen the slowdown coming in to the sales.”

The slowdown of the economy has adversely affected a few big brands across Mumbai.

But mostly the bigger brands are coping with the situation and waiting for a stable economy. They are coming up with new shopping outlets like ‘The Loot’, but somewhere their sales have gone down, too.

[Jay Gupta, The Loot Retail Limited]:
“The industry as such is getting badly affected. In retail the footwalls are coming down, in the malls the footwalls are coming down. Lot of lifestyle chains and restaurants are getting hit badly. But at this time, I feel we have a model which is a value retailing model and if you have limited funds basically you cannot stop eating or wearing clothes, it’s a need of human being and we are here to give you the best offers. So we are selling jeans at rupees 500, a trouser at rupees 500 and a shirt at rupees 300. So somehow this has been working positive for us.”

Although the recession has affected everyone’s lives, some people dont seem to have stopped buying as such. They are waiting for the economy to stablize.

[Sanjay Kshetri, Customer]:
“Recession is a part of our life now in the present condition. It is a global recession and we can’t just keep ourselves out of this. But I think to some extent it has affected my personal life as well and so we can’t just ignore it.”

The Indian luxury goods market was once thought immune to the ebbs and flows of economic fluctuations. But it has finally begun to feel the heat of the worldwide economic slowdown.

Duration : 0:2:25

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