Complaints soar over boom in online shopping

The boom in internet shopping has resulted in soaring numbers of consumer complaints, with a new European report showing a trend in sales of dodgy slimming pills and other pharmaceutical products.

The annual report of the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) published yesterday showed that more consumers are being fleeced as a result of the rise in cross-border e-shopping, with its Irish office revealing customers here are also being stung.

Ireland has its own European Consumer Centre office in Dublin, and the ECC-Net report showed that, last year, the number of complaints here linked to culture and recreation was higher than the average across all the European Consumer Centres.