Flash Eurobarometer 224 (Business Attitudes Towards Cross-border Sales and Consumer Protection)

Attitudes of retailers towards cross-border trade.<br>Topics: retail sales channels; number of EU countries active marketing or advertising to final consumers is made to; number of EU countries cross-border sales to final consumers are made to; estimation of the percentage of the total value from sales to consumers in other EU countries with regard to: e-commerce and internet sales, mail order or telephone sales, sales by home-visits; estimation of the percentage of total sales to final consumers by phone, by post, by e-commerce, and by home-visits which are cross-border sales to EU countries; importance of selected obstacles to cross-border sales to other EU countries: different length of cooling off periods, provision of differing consumer information, different consequences for failing to comply with information requirements, differing rights of withdrawal, different treatment of costs of return, different definitions of delivery, different legislation in member states regarding goods not in conformity with consumer contract; importance of further obstacles: additional costs of compliance with different national tax regulations 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; expected development of the company’s cross-border sales in case of the assumed provision of common EU laws on regulating transactions; interest in cross-border sales to final consumers in other EU countries on the basis of common EU legislation (number of countries); knowledge where to find information on consumer legislation in the own country and in other EU countries; self-rated knowledge about legal obligations towards consumers arising from consumer legislation in the own country; use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or out-of-court dispute resolution bodies for settling disputes with consumers; affection of the company by product recall; reaction to product recall; occurrence of the following in the last twelve months 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, own tests to ensure product safety, other enforcement actions related to product safety.

Demography: position of respondent at the company; information about the company: company size, number of employees, direct selling to final consumers; largest product category; number of EU countries with subsidiaries or retail outlets.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; interviewer ID; language of the interview; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; country; weighting factor.