Overview
- Official 2024 data show that 29% of about 577,400 people who sought debt counseling had unpaid bills with online and mail-order retailers, up from 27% in 2019.
- Among 20–24-year-olds, 40% of counseled individuals carried such arrears, with the share declining steadily with age.
- Women in counseling had online-retail debts more often than men, at roughly 36% versus 24%, and their average arrears were higher at €834 compared with €463 for men.
- Despite the prominence of e-commerce debts, other public creditors such as social funds accounted for 57% of cases and telecommunications firms for 48%.
- The statistics office cautions that easy online ordering and deferred payment options can lead to financial difficulties, and it reports average online-retail arrears of €644, about 2% of the overall average debt load.