Chillin'Competition

For the first time ever, DG COMP  has posed this question to stakeholders and citizens by carrying out a comprehensive survey about the perception of its activities.

In the framework of this exercise, two independent companies have undertaken  both a qualitative survey targetted to professional stakeholders and a quantitative survey of EU citizens from all Member States.

The aggregate stakeholder report is available here, and the individual reports for the various collectives interviewed are available in the following links (companies, lawyers, economic consultancies, consumer associations, national ministries, and national competition authorities). All of these reports cover issues such as legal and economic  soundness of decisions, integrity, economic effectiveness, and external communication. There are tons of interesting comments on DG COMP´s activities, too many to be summed up here. I very much recommend taking a look at these  if you find time.

The survey on citizen´s perceptions about competition policy can be consulted in its full version, as well as in an abbreviated one.  The results, once again, are also extremely interesting (and sometimes shocking; e.g: did you know that 29% of the Spaniards interviewed doubted that price agreements should be prohibited?).  

Some curious data: in practically all Member States the percentage of citizens who believe they are sufficiently informed about competition policy is below 5%;   more than 25% of Bulgarian, Slovak, Polish and Estonian citizens have no whish whatsoever in becoming more informed about this stuff;  the proportion of citizens who gave a “don´t know answer or who did not consider  themselves qualified to reply was highest in…Belgium!). When asked in what sector the lack of competition was causing problems for consumers, citizens pointed out at energy (44%), pharmaceutical products (25%), telecommunications and internet (21%), transport (19%), financial services (18%), and food distribution (16%).

PS. We´re not ignoring the elephant in the room (the opening of a formal investigation about Google´s allegedly abusive practices); there´ll be plenty to come on this case.