The results of the study were presented today at the Eni headquarters in Rome in the presence of institutions and representatives of the Associations
Consumer Associations consider environmental and social sustainability and technological development as emerging and recurring themes on which their debate is most concentrated; believe that Italian consumers are increasingly aware of their rights, even if in a way that is not yet comparable to the European average; they consider companies more ready to relate positively with them and with consumers, even if not all do enough. These are some of the trends that emerge from the research “Consumers, associations and companies: the evolution of the Italian scenario” wanted by Eni, created by Ipsos and presented today at the Eni headquarters of Palazzo Mattei in Rome.
The survey, carried out through 130 interviews between qualitative and quantitative to the managers of consumer associations at national and regional level, also outlined positive considerations on a more protective European legislation, but negative on a less centrality of consumers and associations in the agenda national policy, as well as an associationist system that is not entirely adequate for the times.
Overall, consumer associations are calling for a climate of closer collaboration with the institutions and with each other, also in light of the increasingly informative and educational role, as well as the protection they feel they need to play. Companies are also called upon to support the action of consumer associations to guarantee greater protection and awareness to consumers and, in this sense, the quality indicators of the action of the companies that appear the most relevant from the study are: the quality of the offer , the signing of agreements, arbitrations and protocols to facilitate the resolution of disputes, the efficiency of customer care, a real focus on environmental sustainability and social responsibility. In terms of sectoral dynamics, the energy and telephone sectors are considered to be more evolved from the point of view of relations with consumers.
The focus on the energy sector has shown that the trend of greatest interest for the representatives of national consumer associations is that relating to the transition to the free market, to which however other themes follow, all linked to sustainability: sustainable mobility, considered a very important topic concrete and that involves all the actors in the sector; the energy transaction, a process considered promising but which is still in its infancy; and the circular economy, seen as a real revolution, but today still mostly aspirational. Respondents consider energy companies' commitment to these issues to be quite good, even though they, according to their opinion, could do even more.
As regards in particular the transition to the free market, while the representatives of the national associations are seen as an opportunity, the regional ones consider it a negative event: they all agree then in judging the transition to this regime to be poorly managed.
Finally, the national and regional representatives of consumer associations consider the lack of clarity and transparency of the bill an unresolved criticality of the past, and see the proliferation of many small operators as a new emergency. Both in the oil sector and in the gas and electricity sectors, relations between companies and consumers are judged to be better than in the past but are still not widely considered satisfactory, especially at the level of representatives of local associations.