Insurance, financial investments, travel or care aids are products for which consumers like to rely on comparison portals. However, doubts and caution seem appropriate, as an analysis by the central competition office shows.
Many consumers rely on them, but according to competition watchdogs, comparison portals do not always work properly. The German competition center reports that since spring it has identified a total of 122 violations of competition law on 64 portals monitored.
Important information about how rankings and customer ratings came about was left out most frequently. In addition, it is often not shown what proportion of the market is covered. In this way, providers could buy cheap places in the rankings without this being necessarily marked as advertising. Gold, silver and bronze entries can be booked, as can the title “Premium Partner”. “From our point of view, it is particularly worrying when portals conceal the fact that providers who pay a commission are listed at the top of the rankings,” explained lawyer Martin Bolm.
On closer inspection, supposedly objective comparisons on finance portals would only have turned out to be collections of links to those providers who had previously paid for them. The competition protectors warned that alleged ratings from other customers should also be treated with caution. There is often no or insufficient information about the origin and verification of the published reviews. Five portals even offered vouchers for reviews, which tended to lead to more positive statements.
According to its own statements, the privately organized headquarters have so far sent 33 warnings. In 27 cases, the portal operators had undertaken to refrain from the practice objected to in the future. Complaints were filed in 4 cases. Among other things, portals in the areas of care, finance and tourism were examined.
The central competition office is a self-regulatory institution of the economy for fair competition. According to the company, the non-profit organization is supported by more than 1,100 companies and over 800 chambers and business associations.
