New developments in government consumer policy: A challenge for consumer organizations

In this paper, it is pleaded that consumer organizations ought to play a larger role in the development and execution of consumer policy at the national and international levels. The present environment in which government consumer policy operates is entirely different from that of one or two decades ago, and this necessitates the search for new avenues to pursue the consumer policy objective. Although government remains responsible for providing basic consumer protection, it should scrutinize its own organization in order to achieve a better integration of the consumer aspect in sectoral policies. Especially in the field of economic consumer protection, consumer organizations should start negotiations with business with a view to obtain, e.g., better contract terms and complaint handling mechanisms. If government maintains that the achievement of such goals is worthwhile from the consumer point of view and leads to a better functioning of markets, but wants to refrain from legal action, it should provide consumer organizations with the means to perform these negotiations. Consumer organizations are urged to accept this challenge. Further, the organization of EC policies and those of the Consumer Committee of the OECD are discussed. The roles of BEUC and IOCU within this framework are also dealt with.