This study aimed at providing an in-depth description of potentially unfair commercial practices adopted by financial service providers in the EU27, and at providing insights on why such practices are put in place, with a clear aim to identify instances in which the prominent intent or effect is to limit and/or distort customer choice. In addition, the study aimed at measuring the potential impact of such practices on markets, consumers and businesses (in particular, SMEs), and at identifying a range of potential solutions to the observed problems. For this purpose, a consortium of two institutions, CEPS and Van Dijk, joined forces to combine their experience in legal, economic, financial and policy formulation issues, to report and describe an inventory of tying and potentially unfair practices at stake in the 27 Member States and assess their likely outcomes through a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis.