Audit fees benchmark of listed PIEs in the EU

Determining the right price for an audit is a sensitive issue. Audit fees impact audit quality, competition among audit firms and companies’ choice of auditors. They offer a unique perspective on market shares and the ongoing dynamics in the audit market.

The PIE audit market serves the public interest and contributes to financial stability. It is regulated to ensure transparency, limit conflicts of interest and provide EU companies with a level-playing field across Member States.

With the new Commission priorities to enhance competitiveness and reduce companies’ burdens, including reporting, understanding audit fee dynamics at the EU level is vital. This knowledge helps decision-makers identify information gaps and potential market deficiencies.

However, there is a lack of reliable and comparable data on listed PIE audit fees in the EU.

Our first study (2023) provided key figures on the listed PIE audit market, revealing the EU’s lack of an exhaustive and comparable dataset on audit fees across Member States. This gap hinders the proper functioning of the PIE audit market.

The second publication (2025) aims to update, complement and refine our initial findings to support informed discussions. Key findings include:

• In Member States with comparable listed PIE markets, the cost of audit can vary from 1 to 4.
• The 2014 audit reform has not resulted in an increase on audit fee/revenue ratio for listed PIEs.
• A widening gap with the UK: while the weighted audit fee/ revenue ratio more than doubled in the UK, it decreased in the EU for listed PIEs with a market capitalisation below €500m
• The persistent dominance of the four largest audit firms in the listed PIE market, holding over 90% of market share in terms of fees.
• In jurisdictions like France, where listed PIEs must have two independent audit firms under joint audit, the audit fee/revenue ratio can be more competitive than in other Member States;
• Diverging audit fee disclosure practices among Member States, preventing EU-wide comparisons.

These publications are a contribution to the public debate on enhancing audit quality and market efficiency. We welcome feedback and further input to improve the dataset used and our analysis.

Download our publications