Abstract: Recent decades have shown the rise of consumerism and consumer organisations. The rise reflects the shift in attention, perceptible since the rise of the affluent society in the 1960s, from the position of income earner to that of income spender, of consumer. Consumerism is the emancipation movement of the consumer. A cause of every emancipation movement is a feeling of discord, a becoming conscious of one's own situation and, as a consequence, the striving to improve that situation. Some causes of consumerism that can be mentioned are: a higher income, creating more possibilities for consumption; an increased complexity of choice; the greater distance between producer and consumer,' a more critical attitude; a higher level of expectations; and insufficient information. Thorelli and Thorelli[1] distinguish three possibilities of improving the consumers' position: information, education and protection. The most important means available to consumer organisations for attaining their aims are information and publicity. When these do not yield results, one then seeks governmental regulations. Ideologically, most consumer organisations belong to the defenders of the more-or-less free market system, who take the line that the system's functioning and the position of the consumers within it can be improved through more and better information. Therefore, their most important activity is the conduct and publication of comparative product testing (cpO. The influence of consumer organisations and cpt is the main theme of this study from which the complete results are published in Box[2]. The empirical research is placed within the framework of the market power of the consumer and the theory of consumer information behaviour.

　　Subjects: CONSUMER cooperatives; CONSUMER behavior; CONSUMERS -- Attitudes; CONSUMPTION (Economics); PUBLICITY; CONSUMER goods; CONSUMER protection; TESTING; MARKETS; All Other Consumer Goods Rental; Other Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Administration of General Economic Programs; SOCIAL movements

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