1. How does competition increase the purchasing power of the consumer ? the BEUC perspective Conference on Competition and Growth Brussels, 13 October 2008

2. Competition delivers to consumers : lack of competition can lead to important losses of purchasing power : see UFC April 2008 Study : Competition is not a natural phenomemon : everybody wants to escape from it There is more to competition than competition policy : empowered consumers Transparency Consumer mobility : urban planning Protection against agressive and unfair practices confidence

3. Many examples of lack of consumer welfare because of market failure : –Territorial discrimination by undertakings –Antidumping duties on shoes and consumer prices –Music online and prices for protected/non protected music –Collecting societies : abusing copyright leading to limited consumer purchasing power –difficulty of switching supplier : energy, banks, telecom operators –Lack of interoperability of devices and software

4. -A market to be competitive a market needs strong regulation -Powerful regulators -Enforcement taking account of consumer perspective -Communication towards consumers -Access to files -Compensation for consumers who suffered damages because of anti-competitive behaviour

5. -Markets are not perfect -Consumers do not behave as rationally as market economy theory would like them to do -A policy intended to put consumers in the centre of the market must -Engage into behavioural science in order to design instruments that take account of effective consumer decision drivers -Proactively correct market failures to provide information, confidence, mobility and make it possible for consumers to act sustainably.

6. To know more about us : www.beuc.eu