During the last decades, deep market oriented reforms of public infrastructure services (liberalization, deregulation and wide-spread privatization) were introduced, as a key step in the forging of a European Single Market. These reforms aimed to increase competition and choice, and thus permitting consumers to take better decisions in the markets, increasing their satisfaction. However, market oriented reforms have been subject to heavy concerns regarding their effects on services provision and citizens final satisfaction. At present, following the recognition of relevant problems in the functioning of these markets, both policy makers and academics are increasingly considering the perspective of citizens as consumers, and thus their demands and satisfaction towards these services. In particular, some of the key criticisms to market oriented reforms focus on the risk of leaving behind those citizens potentially more vulnerable as consumers. However, there remains a lack of empirical evaluation on this regard. In this context, this paper contributes to the evaluation of market oriented reforms of public infrastructure services in the European Union, from the perspective of citizens as consumers. Concretely, it is addressed if these reforms have led to differences in satisfaction among different socioeconomic groups, as proxies of citizens’ vulnerability as consumers. To do so, multilevel microeconometric estimations are carried out on citizens’ satisfaction as dependent variables, in a cross national analysis based on Eurobarometer data. As independent variables, interactions between socioeconomic conditions proxies of potential vulnerability and indicators on depth of market oriented reforms are considered. The results obtained reflect in which aspects, regarding which dimensions and to what extent market oriented reforms of public infrastructure services are generating disparities among European citizens. From this, relevant conclusions for European regulatory policies are obtained, aiming to preserve equity and social cohesion, while promoting quality of services and citizens’ satisfaction.
