Flash Eurobarometer 397 (Consumer Attitudes Towards Cross-border Trade and Consumer Protection, wave 4)

Attitudes towards cross-border shopping and consumer protection.

Topics: purchase of goods or services in the past twelve months via the internet from a seller located: in the own country, in another EU country, outside the EU; purchase of goods or services through channels other than internet from sellers located in other EU countries; approval of the following statements regarding consumer protection in the own country: trust in public authorities and in non-governmental consumer organisations, sellers respect consumer rights, easy to settle disputes with sellers through out-of-court-bodies and through the courts, most environmental claims about goods or services are reliable; assessment of the non-food products currently on the market in the own country as safe; influence of environmental impact on product choice during the last two weeks; knowledge of the right to return a new electronic product ordered by post, by phone, or on the internet four days after delivery without giving any reason and get money back; knowledge of the right to have a defective electronic product repaired or replaced for free bought new 18 months ago; obligation to pay invoice for not ordered deliveries: no obligation to pay and no obligation to return good, no obligation to pay provided that the good is returned, obligation to pay; experienced problems in the last twelve months when buying goods or using services in the own country and reaction to the problem; body the complaint was addressed to: retailer or service provider, manufacturer, public authority, out-of-court dispute resolution body, court; satisfaction with the handling of the complaint by the aforementioned bodies; reasons for not complaining; experiences in the last twelve months with the following unfair commercial practices of retailers or service providers located in the own country or in another EU country: information to have won a lottery without having knowledge of the lottery itself and being asked to pay money in order to collect the prize, pressure by persistent sales calls or messages urging to buy something or to sign a contract, offers of products advertised as free but actually entailing charges, products being falsely advertised as available only for a limited period; experienced problems regarding online shopping from sellers located in the own country or in another EU country: delivery of a damaged or different product, late delivery, no delivery at all; encountered problems when buying online from another EU country: refusal to deliver to respondent’s country, refusal of payments coming from respondent’s country, redirect to a website in respondent’s country with different prices; experiences with selected problems regarding shopping in general from sellers located in the own country or in another EU country: unfair terms and conditions in contracts, obligation to pay unanticipated extra charges; confidence regarding the purchase of goods or services via the internet from sellers: in the own country, in another EU country; used languages; financial situation of the household; consumer numerical skills: arithmetic test on the calculation of price reductions.

Demography: age; sex; nationality; internet use for private purposes; age at end of education; professional position; region; type of community; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; household composition and household size.

Additionally coded was: country; type of phone line; nation group; weighting factor.