Sceptical consumers across the eurozone may be expecting the shift to euro notes and coins on January 1 2002 to push up prices. But the common currency should also make it easier to spot what Leif Pagrotsky, Sweden's trade minister, likes to call "rip-offs" perpetuated by companies in the European Union's internal market.

With the advent of the euro, the public can compare prices more easily between countries and judge how much they are being ripped off. The European Commission is urging consumers to shop around because there are big savings to be made.

A price comparison published by the Commission earlier last month found that price differences between EU countries varied by as much as 50 per cent for consumer electronics goods. For example, a Philips portable CD player in Germany was 21 percentage points below an EU average price while in Spain, the same player was 23 percentage points above the average. An informal survey by FT correspondents found that even the price of a chocolate bar varies across the euro-zone.

"Prices have converged by about 30 per cent in the past five years," said a Commission official, "but there is still some way to go."

The Commission believes that many of the price differences are caused by obstacles to trade, lack of competition, underdeveloped distribution networks and the market power of big brand-owners. "The same piece of equipment is often priced differently in different countries," said the official. "This often reflects the power of big companies to set their own prices."

The Commission has calculated that if consumers were able to buy a basket of consumer electronics goods at the lowest price for each individual item, Spanish buyers would be able to save 20 per cent on their overall bill. On average, EU consumers could save 12 per cent on the basket that contains a portable CD player, a 14-inch TV, a 28-inch TV, a video cassette recorder, a DVD player and a camcorder.

Mr Pagrotsky said earlier this year when he unveiled a Swedish/British price comparison study that the wide divergences showed the internal market was not working properly.

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