Flash Eurobarometer 331 (Retailers´ Attitudes Towards Cross-border Trade and Consumer Protection, wave 2)

Attitudes of retailers towards cross-border trade. Knowledge regarding consumer legislation.

Topics: estimation of the percentage of the company’s total turnover of the last year: from e-commerce and internet sales in general and in the own country, from sales by phone or by post, from sales by internet, by phone or by post to consumers in other EU countries; importance of selected obstacles to the development of cross-border sales to other EU countries: additional costs of compliance with different national tax regulations and consumer protection rules and contract law, higher costs of cross-border delivery compared to domestic delivery, higher costs in resolving complaints and disputes cross-border, higher costs of the risk of fraud and non-payments, extra costs arising from language differences or after-sales services, restrictions imposed by manufacturers and suppliers; knowledge where to find relevant information about consumer legislation in the own country and in other EU countries; knowledge of the length of the cooling off period in the own country; knowledge of the customer’s right to have a defective product repaired; knowledge test concerning the prohibition of selected commercial practices by law in the own country: include an invoice or a similar document in marketing material, advertise products at very low price without having a reasonable quantity of products for sale, make exaggerated statements in advertisements, describe products as ‘free’ that are only available calling premium rate phone numbers; perception of fraudulent, misleading or deceptive advertisements, statements or offers made by competitors in the last twelve months; perception of exaggerated or misleading statements by competitors about beneficial environmental effects of their products; approval of the following statements: own company complies with consumer legislation, competitors comply with consumer legislation; occurrence of the following in the last two years in the company: reception of consumer complaints about the safety of products, safety checks of products by the authorities, authorities asking to withdraw or recall a product, authorities asking to issue a public warning about the safety of a product, own tests to ensure product safety, other enforcement actions related to product safety; occurrence of consumer authorities charging the company with non-compliance with legislation in the last twelve months; attitude towards the following statements regarding the monitoring of compliance with consumer and product safety legislation in the own country in the company’s sector: public authorities actively monitor and ensure compliance with consumer legislation, with product safety legislation, and with food safety legislation, consumer NGOs actively monitor compliance with consumer legislation, self-regulatory bodies actively monitor respect of codes of conduct or codes of practice, media regularly report on businesses which do not respect consumer legislation, change of commercial practices as result of media stories; use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies for settling disputes with consumers in the past two years; assessment of the share of non-food as well as of food products currently on the market in the own country which comply with safety standards.

Demography: information about the company: company size, direct selling to final consumers, number of employees; number of EU countries cross-border sales to final consumers are made to; turnover of the company in the last year; retail sales channels; kind of products or services sold to final consumers; selling in other languages.

Additionally coded was: country; NACE-Code; preferred language of the interview; weighting factor.