Flash Eurobarometer 403: Citizens’ Perception about Competition Policy

The Flash Eurobarometer Citizen survey 403 on citizens' perception about competition policy was carried out in September 2014 by phone among 26,549 citizens in EU 28 by TNS Opinion. The survey focussed on citizens' awareness of the impact of competition, lack of competition and applicable information channels. EU citizens generally have positive views about the impact of competition. 74% say that effective competition has a positive impact on them as a consumer. However, one in five respondents (19%) says that the impact is negative. Across the EU, citizens think that problems resulting from a lack of competition are most likely in the energy sector (28%), followed by transport services (23%) and pharmaceutical products (21%). 39% of EU citizens say that they have heard or read about competition policies, such as cartels, merger or state aid control, in the last 12 months. The two main sources of information about competition policy are television (62%) and newspapers or magazines, including on-line (60%).

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics

Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer