Verivox boss Puschmann: "A lot goes wrong with digital consumer protection in Germany"

You have made the world more transparent for consumers: comparison platforms on the Internet.

If you are looking for a cheap electricity provider, a home loan at low interest rates or a cheap hotel for an overnight stay, you often first look at your smartphone.

In the analog world of the past, you would never have come to an end if you had weighed hundreds of options against each other in terms of costs and benefits before making a decision.

Today it can be done online - a huge benefit for consumers.

And the possibilities of digitization do not seem to have been exhausted by a long way.

At the same time, comparison platforms repeatedly come into conflict with consumer advocates.

Sometimes the state even intervenes to keep consumers away from damage caused by the power of the comparison platforms.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in business.

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Daniel Puschmann, the CEO of the electricity price comparison platform Verivox, does not see Germany as well equipped in these questions: “A lot is going wrong in digital consumer protection in Germany,” said Puschmann in an interview with the FAZ Transferred one-to-one from the analog to the digital world. ”In addition, consumer protection must avoid always seeing a threat in the novelty of digitization. A radical rethinking is necessary: ​​"We have two demands: a refocusing of consumer protection on consumer empowerment - and a practical check for all consumer protection measures before they are introduced." In other words, consumers should be made more responsible through information instead of being tamed by rules.And new government interventions in the digital world should be examined more thoroughly for harmful side effects before they are introduced.

Smarter comparison platform for checking accounts

One example where things went wrong in his opinion is the state-certified comparison platform for checking accounts.

It was not brought into being by Verivox at all, but by competitor Check24.

Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) had specified the rules, based on the relevant resolutions of the European Union.

When after a long effort everything was ready, the consumer advice centers complained against it.

Mainly because there are too few banks in comparison and the market coverage is too low.

In the end, the platform was switched off and the publicly financed Stiftung Warentest took over the task temporarily.

The state stepped in because the private sector was stopped.

"Although all the requirements of the certification authority were met, the platform failed due to a lawsuit from the consumer advice centers," says Puschmann.

"Now Stiftung Warentest is taking over the account comparison, and there is less market coverage than before, although the old settlement had been sued for precisely because of the market coverage." Now there are significantly fewer than 400 different offers - previously there were more than 600.

The platform chief worries about the logic behind this development.

The fact that the comparison platforms are accused of wanting to enrich themselves with brokerage commissions, which is why one cannot rely on the comparison results of the private platforms - and state comparisons are needed.

Despite everything, competition in electricity is not very strong

"It cannot be that now only the state should offer such comparisons, although there is now a successful tradition of private comparison platforms on the Internet," says Puschmann. Verivox has been on the market for more than 20 years. Comparison platforms lived on commissions - but they could only be successful in the long term if they provided consumers with good comparisons: "That is the decisive mechanism," says the Verivox boss. At Verivox, too, people thought about whether consumers could pay for the comparisons instead of the companies being compared. "But it would be difficult to suddenly introduce fees for a service that is once established as free."

At the moment, the price of electricity in Germany is particularly high. But despite comparison platforms, the competition is not really gaining momentum. Why is that? "Although switching from the basic supply to a cheaper tariff can save an average of around 400 euros a year for a household, there are still many consumers who never change electricity providers," says Puschmann. Only 35 percent of households are with someone other than their basic supplier. For some consumers, switching providers seems to be too difficult - others feared that they would literally be in the dark after switching providers. Puschmann admits: There are certainly cases of insolvent electricity providers such as the Bavarian energy supply company BEV. They caused a lot of media attention, says the Verivox boss:"But these are relatively rare cases."

Ideas for an early warning system

Nevertheless, something can be done in the sense of digital consumer protection, says Puschmann: “It would be good if we could protect consumers better than before from black sheep in the industry,” says the Verivox boss: “We would not find it, for example It would be bad if we could establish an early warning system for such cases together with other partners and the Federal Network Agency. "