CR20139 - Consumer Detriment Survey

**THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION**

This was awarded under Crown Commercial Services Research Marketplace Dynamic Purchasing System RM6018.

Background

Broadly, the aim of this project is to better understand consumer detriment in the UK. We view consumer detriment as the harm or loss that consumers experience, when, for example,

• they are misled by unfair market practices into making purchases of goods or services that they would not have otherwise made,
• they pay more than what they would have, had they been better informed,
• they suffer from unfair contract terms or
• the goods and services purchased do not conform to consumers' (reasonable) expectations with respect to delivery, performance or quality, including product safety and authenticity.

Consumer detriment can manifest itself in many formats, such as a delayed delivery, substandard service or the purchase of a faulty item. Previous surveys suggest that millions of UK consumers experience some form of consumer detriment every year. Through this survey, we want to robustly quantify the problems' incidence and impact.