The study, carried out by the European Commission, revealed that only the investment industry is regarded as a worse rip-off domestically and Europe-wide than estate agency.
Estate agency was followed in third place by the used car business.
These are the three markets deemed to be the most likely to fail consumers, according to the 2010 Consumer Markets Scoreboard.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health & Consumers ranked 50 markets in all 27 EU member states, based on research among 500 consumers in each country, all with recent purchasing experience in each market.
They were asked about such factors as trust, customer satisfaction, complaints, ease of switching and cost.
Consumers across Europe declared themselves the most satisfied with food and drink, with funeral services also scoring highly.
Markets with consistently low scores were investments, ‘real estate services’, used cars, internet provision, and railways.
Estate agents scored poorly in all the EU countries, coming bottom in the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Latvia and Slovenia.
In the UK, the worst markets were: investments, estate agents, second hand cars, car repairs, gas, and legal and accountancy services.
However, UK consumers were relatively pleased with credit and mortgage services, giving them a higher ranking than their overall EU rating.
