Consumer IT services

5 December 2002

The OFT found the consumer IT goods and services market is working well, but could serve consumers better - particularly with information on support services and printer cartridges.

The findings are the result of the OFT's year-long investigation into the market, on which UK consumers spend more than £2 billion a year.

The report finds that overall satisfaction with the performance and price of PCs is high, and only three per cent of consumers had difficulty obtaining and using the information available to compare PC prices and products. However there were some areas of dissatisfaction. 

We've made recommendations that aim to improve consumer information, including the need for clearer consumer contracts. 

We found a lack of transparency in the price and performance of inkjet printer cartridges, and recomended that a test standard for inkjet printer cartridges be developed and published within 12 months.

See press release

Download the report Consumer IT goods and services (pdf 336 kb).

Background information

Download the research report The consumer PC market in Europe (pdf 216 kb).

Download the research report The consumer PC market in the United States (pdf 207 kb).

Guidance

We produced a leaflet for consumers Buying a pc (pdf 96 kb), which provides help to guide through the jargon and tangle of buying a PC.

The OFT will shortly provide guidance to the industry on unfair contract terms and distance selling regulations, but already available is a questionnaire that sellers can use to clarify the needs of consumers, and can be downloaded as a pdf file (71 kb), or as a Word file (207 kb).

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