By Lana Clements

An investigation of personal loan, credit cards and other credit websites across the EU has shown that 70% broke consumer rules because of the type of information, or lack of, available to consumers.

National enforcement authorities checked over 550 websites across the 27 EU countries, as well as Norway and Iceland, and found that 393 violated EU consumer rules.

EU legislation states that credit providers must adhere to certain rules when selling products to help customers make the right decisions.

Nearly half didn't include required standard information, such as the annual percentage rate of the credit (APR), or whether the price of required added services, for example insurance, were included in the cost. Many also left out the length of the credit contract or agreement.

Over 40% of the websites failed to include key information needed for decision making. This includes the type of interest - for example, whether it was fixed or variable - and costs relating to credit such as arrangement fees.

Meanwhile, one in five of the websites costs were misleading. Some websites deceived customers through the way the price was calculated or didn't tell if there were extra required costs beyond the price of the credit.

The commission will now begin an enforcement of these rules among the websites, which were found to be in violation of the rules. Fines or closure of websites will be made if changes are not made.

EU Consumer Commissioner John Dalli says: "When people look for credit they sometimes discover that this credit turns out to be more expensive than it had originally appeared, because important information was sometimes unclear or missing.

"It is therefore very important that businesses provide consumers with the correct and necessary information. And it is the role of the Commission to work together with national enforcers to make this happen."