The process for the revision of the UN Guidelines enters a definitive stage

It is a crucial period for CI’s work to ensure global consumer guidelines are updated to meet new challenges, CI consumer policy expert Antonino Serra Cambaceres says. 

The global consumer movement faces a big challenge. We have to convince governments to support our United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection (UNGCP) proposals.

It is a complex task and time is of the essence. Governments, more specifically government missions accredited to UNCTAD, hold the fate of this process in their hands.

Therefore, the coordinated work we have to do will be essential to obtain their support.

We can ensure the Guidelines remain the global benchmark for consumer protection - and we have an obligation to reflect the needs and aspirations of millions of consumers worldwide.

If we work in a coordinated manner, this effort will certainly bear fruit.

It’s important to look back on how we arrived at this point.

In 2013, CI presented a proposal which was developed with input from its Members.

In this proposal, we identified issues that needed new guidelines - financial services, e-commerce and energy among others - as well as those in which it was necessary to adapt existing guidelines.

Since then CI continued to participate in the review process and sent responses to the four working groups that were created in 2013 – namely  Financial Services, Electronic Commerce, Implementation and Other Issues.

In these responses we reaffirmed the points that we felt should be updated.

This first stage of this work ended on August 15 when UNCTAD released a report called "Report on the modalities for the review of the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection".

The publication of this report marked the second stage of the process. UNCTAD has requested all stakeholders - governments, international organisations, civil society groups – comment on the report so that work groups can develop concrete proposals.

This means that from now until October 2014 working groups will identify areas and issues on which there is some consensus to progress the update of the Guidelines.

That’s why this second stage is very important. UNCTAD expects proposed revised texts of the new guidelines, which will take the form of a resolution, will be discussed at a meeting to be held in Geneva, in January 2015.

The draft resolution will be due in November this year, for further comments before January’s meeting.

The 7th UN Review Conference, to be held in July 2015, will approve the draft resolution to be submitted to the UN General Assembly for adoption.

Birth choice: CI's UK Member delivers website to help expectant parents

Using public data, Which? has created a website to help parents easily understand crucial information that can help them make the best decisions ahead of their child's birth, says Sonia Sodha, the organisation's Head of Public Services and Consumer Rights Policy. 

Which? Birth Choice is a free-to-use website that brings together everything expectant parents need to know to decide where to have their baby.

Information on different birth environments and personalised statistics are drawn together and presented in a way which recognises the importance of personal considerations alongside medical factors so that women can make an informed birth choice. 

Which? Birth Choice stemmed from the desire of Which? to use available data to empower consumers in public services.

The Birthplace study (BMJ 2011) revealed that where women plan to have their baby has a significant impact on birth outcomes.

However Which? research found that at the beginning of their pregnancy a third (34%) of mothers said they knew nothing or not much about the amount of choice they had about where to give birth and half (49%) said the same about the different types of maternity units available to them.

Furthermore, as health data is often put into the public domain in a form that is useful to clinicians, Which? identified a real need for a site that could not only use evidence to help women make a birth place decision but to do so in an accessible and interactive way, enabling women and their partners to easily understand the information.

And so in January 2014, Which? Birth Choice was launched. Our unique and interactive ‘Find and Compare’ tool asks questions about an individual’s preferences and circumstances to present the options that may be best for them.

Women answer questions such as “Do you think you will want to use a birthing pool during labour?” on a sliding scale and provide their age and postcode.

Responses are combined with evidence on place of birth, NICE guidance and a database of maternity unit locations to propose which local maternity services are the “best fit” and a “good fit” for the woman.

All of the maternity units in the UK have their own unit page on which information about facilities and women’s experiences of care is displayed.

The data which is presented in easy-to-read bar charts is manipulated according to the answers a woman provides in the ‘Find and Compare’ tool to display stats for women who are statistically similar to them.

This makes the information relevant and ultimately more useful. Women and their partners can also view units side by side to make direct comparisons and understand the differences between them. Where a home birth is suggested as a suitable option there is plenty of evidence-based information provided to help inform their choice.

The site is currently receiving over 11,000 visits a month and our average visit time of 17 minutes indicates excellent levels of engagement.

Visitors to the site are exploring the advice articles and using the ‘Find and Compare’ tool. It has been well received by the midwifery community and the the Royal College of Midwives officially support us.

By providing both general information about labour wards, birth centres and home births as well as an interactive decision making tool the site empowers women and their partners to understand the potential benefits and risks of different maternity choices.

Understanding that they have a decision and what the impacts of that decision may be enables women and their partners to make an evidence-based choice that is best for them and their baby.

Trust is in flux and consumer groups must seize it back

CI Director General Amanda Long argues consumer activists must challenge the corporate occupation of trust in the digital age.

Who do you trust? This is a question that has popped up at part of the #ConsumerTrends questionnaire we launched earlier this week.

It’s an incredibly important question, as I believe consumer trust, consumer decision-making and consumer power are changing in profound ways.

If those interested in consumer rights, justice and protection are to remain relevant and immediate to the lives of the consumers we represent, we must meet them where they are and address the questions they seek answers to every single day.

Of course, many of the world’s most successful consumer groups have built their legitimacy and legacy on doing just that. Consumers International was founded in 1960 by five groups dedicated to testing products to help consumers make better everyday purchasing decisions.

But as consumer decision-making evolves in the digital age traditional consumer activists risk giving away relevance and legitimacy to others whom have already identified - and are acting upon - these trends.

In fact, the uncomfortable reality is that corporations are already starting to do this very successfully.

There are many respected international studies out there on brand meaning and consumer trust that are pointing to the same conclusion – that consumers are increasingly making purchasing-decisions based on values, not just value. That we want to make meaningful choices, not just functional ones. And that we are becoming mindful consumers, increasingly interested in the provenance and impact of the goods we buy.

Don’t get me wrong: in the first instance, issues of ‘access’ or ‘choice’ are key to consumer behaviour. Within this hierarchy ‘value’ and a ‘fair deal’ are still and will remain primary drivers for purchasing decisions and consumer behaviour.

That is not going to change quickly. But what we are certainly seeing a further angle emerging to consumer behaviour, as that concept of a ‘fair deal’ and ‘fairness’ expand and the issue of ‘impact’ comes into play.   

Why is this happening?  Because we are worrying about whether our children will have a better life than we have; we are concerned about the concentration of power within businesses and institutions; and are increasingly unconvinced that the society we live in is fair.

That's the compelling conclusion of John Gerzema, a marketing guru and social strategist who pioneers the use of data to identify social change and help companies adapt to new demands, following his recent survey of 64,000 people around the world.

Why does it matter? Because in the second decade of the 21st Century digital technology is allowing people to interact with unprecedented amounts of information – in real time, whilst on the move.

What is more, it's allowing them to provide feedback and get their voice heard: not just as individuals, but as collectives – the likes of which world has never seen.

And this is not just about liking a Facebook update or signing an online petition. It’s about common cause and collective actions: the power of crowds to change corporate practice, the reverse auctioning of city-wide utility prices and the collective purchasing of essential services.

The world’s biggest brands see this and fear the implications.

It’s why corporate reputation is so high on their agenda. They know that, in order to secure the loyalty and trust of tomorrow’s consumers they must do all they can to appear responsible, accountable, transparent and engaging.

They can no longer just sell products, they must sell values, and do it with empathy.

Our recent global survey of consumer protection found less than half the 60 countries polled have measures to encourage ethical or socially responsible behaviour from companies. Yet some leading brands are presenting themselves as doing it anyway.

Today, the global CSR database Corporate Register contains 55,000 corporate responsibility reports from 11,000 companies in over 160 countries. In 2008 there were around 3,000 – that’s an 18 fold increase in six years.

Why the exponential rise in concern about reputation? Because brands see that consumer trust is up for grabs.

At the moment, trust is in flux. This new territory is still in play and consumer activists must seize this opportunity to align our movement with a changing world.

This means embracing digital technologies as the main driver for consumer information exchange, engagement and mobilisation.

It means being more agile and vociferous in calling out brands when they abuse consumer rights. And it also means seeking appropriate ways to work with them directly to drive more responsible behaviours. 

Trans-global corporations, big successful businesses, are 10-15 years ahead of state and civil society in their thinking on these issues and have the bottomless resources to fund their planned occupation of consumer decision-making.

But consumers can be an army of collective voices – we can work together and win.

Developments in digital age technology will allow us to do it as this century takes shape, but make no mistake: those who believe in and stand up for consumer justice have a tough battle to keep hold of relevance and immediacy in people’s daily lives.

We must make sure we do not oversee a migration of trust away from truly impartial consumer champions. Consumer rights, not corporate rhetoric, should be the source of empowerment for tomorrow’s consumers.

This blog is an abridged version of the speech Amanda Long, delivered to the 40th anniversary symposium of the Hong Kong Consumer Council, 7 April 2014.

Five big wins for consumers in 2013

So as the year draws to a close what are the five biggest wins for consumers this year? For the major issues we consumer campaigners have to face there were some great victories in the areas of nutrition, prices and consumer law. CI Digital Editor Vik Iyer reflects on 2013.

Mexico junk food tax

Mexico did not just enforce the tax on junk food – they increased the proposed levy as it continues to combat its obesity epidemic.

CI Members in Mexico have long campaigned for this move and even states in the US, which tends to favour laissez-faire economics,  have examined measures penalising junk food and drink.

In Mexico, initial proposals had been for a 5% tax on fatty foods but that was increased to 8%.  Soft and sugary drinks will be taxed at one peso ($0.07) per litre.

More good news for consumers saw major food manufacturers agree to ‘traffic light labelling’ in the UK, following the examples of big supermarkets.

Is there a mood change going in Big Food? Maybe, just maybe: as this rather sheepish Coke interview suggests.

Google privacy defeat

Revelations about spying and privacy have dominated the news this year. But legal action by a CI Member in Germany showed that the consumer movement can act as a check on the excesses of supersize Internet companies.

Several clauses of Google's privacy policy and terms of use were declared unlawful by the court thanks to legal action from, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv).

All in all, 25 clauses in the privacy policy statement and the terms of use were affected, which were phrased too broadly or illegally restrict consumer rights.

“This decision is an important message to IT companies. They need to rethink in the matter of data protection and take German regulations on data protection and consumer rights seriously” said Gerd Billen, Executive Director of the vzbv and CI Council member.

Mobile phone price hikes

In the United Kingdom, CI Member Which? won its Fixed Mean Fixed campaign to allow consumers to exit mobile phone contracts where prices go up.

This is exactly the type of action likely to feature heavily in our upcoming World Consumer Rights Day campaign.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: “Consumers told us price hikes on fixed contracts were unfair, and now people will be able to leave these contracts and switch to a cheaper provider without being hit by extortionate exit fees.”

Fijians get consumer law overhaul

Our Member the Consumer Council of Fiji campaigned for major changes in the law to improve the lives of consumers – and their advocacy worked.

Firstly, the government has announced a Consumer Compensation Tribunal that will adjudicate over claims on third party insurance and other consumer complaints.

Secondly, a taskforce to monitor prices of duty-reduced items will be established.

The Council has long argued that duty reductions often do not translate into lower retail prices for consumers.

Oman launched a unique price monitor

Finally, in a consumer protection first – certainly in the Middle East – the Public Authority for Consumer Protection of Oman (PACP) launched a mobile digital price checker for its 8,000 field staff to monitor prices across the country.

The handheld device can scan a whole range of products to check prices are not exceeding market levels. Information is fed back into a price monitor database to keep a close eye of market fluctuations and the Authority’s staff can even issue and print out fines from the handheld device where retails are excessively overcharging.

Our Director General Helen McCallum says goodbye

CI’s Director General retires this week. In her goodbye blog, Helen reflects on how the consumer movement can continue to grow.

Which other job takes you from a publications strewn basement office in Chile to a housewife’s front room in Mumbai, via a canal cruise full of activists in Amsterdam?

From day 1 being DG of Consumers International has been a roller coaster ride full of surprises, wonderful passionate people and opportunities to change business practice and international policy to improve the lot of consumers all over the world.

CI is growing members and supporters

It has been a huge privilege to lead Consumers International for almost three years and although I am sad to leave, I do so knowing that CI is growing its membership, finding many new organisations willing and eager to support the consumer cause and with a reputation for international influence that far outstrips its actual resource.

CI Members are stronger together than apart

CI’s success in lobbying for international standards and changes in business practice on everything from mobile phones (see our plans for World Consumer Rights Day 2014) to financial services, from healthy and safe food to better broadband deals is a testimony to the truth that as a consumer movement we are stronger together than apart.

Members of CI contribute in different ways – through personal attendance at meetings, by providing policy expertise, by making introductions and using their networks to help us reach the most influential players, by national lobbying in support of an international change and of course by paying their membership fees. Contributions vary, but each and every Member is critical to CI’s mission.

Without a truly international membership CI would not have access at the highest international decision-making levels as it does today.

CI Members should learn from each other

This is why it is important to continue to broker agreement and arrive at consensus positions which we can all stand by and support. It is why it is  important to use CI to seek out campaign ideas, income generation activities and sources of knowledge and expertise to help individual organisations to grow.

It is not true that small Members can learn from big Members but offer nothing in return;  or that one region has a monopoly on good ideas – there are numerous examples all over the world of successful ideas which have brought real benefits to consumers and which could be transferred to another country – without each organisation having to reinvent the wheel.

Continual reinvention

My hope for the consumer movement is that it will spot both the opportunities and threats in a changing world and find ways to continually reinvent itself. 

We all need to look outwards to take advantage of the new communications technologies that can help us reach ever broader audiences, be open to finding sources of support from outside the movement and constantly staying close to consumers themselves so that we are alert to new issues, policy changes and new business practices that affect consumers.

Our future lies in being at the forefront of the fight for consumer rights in a way which makes a real difference to real people.

I wish my successor Amanda Long all the very best as she takes on this challenging but satisfying role and I want to say a fond farewell to the very many Members who have made me welcome in their country, sent suggestions to CI and contributed to its success.

Season’s greetings to you all.       

Renewing the consumer movement in Africa

Onica Makwakwa, Head of CI's Africa Office reflects on the recent growth of the consumer movement in Africa and what this means for CI and its Members. 

This year has been dominated by news of The Rise of the African Consumer led by reports from the McKinsley Institute.

While both promising and exciting from an economic and marketing perspective, these reports have sometimes been worrisome especially when thinking about the still lacking state of consumer protection throughout Africa.

It is therefore exciting to be part of the current renewal and growth of consumer organisations in Africa as experienced through the many new and upgraded Full Members who have joined CI during this time.

The commercial focus on the African consumer means that now more than ever we must seek to protect consumers’ rights through effective sector and comprehensive consumer protection law.

Many of these organisations are on the forefront of efforts to introduce legislation for consumer protection, such as Consumer Advocacy Centre, an upgraded Full Member in Ghana who is conducting stakeholder consultations on the newly drafted consumer protection policy that will be used to draft legislation for the country.

Such renewal of the consumer movement in Africa makes this an exciting time for CI and its Members.

We hope to continue to harness the collective power of consumer organisations in the region as a formidable voice of consumers that will usher in the necessary protections for 21st century consumers in Africa.

Thinking big: Which? on how Right Choice will build consumer rights in India

Helen Parker from Which? blogs on a new fund aimed at promoting consumer rights in India. 

Why should you read the fine print when shopping online? How can you best care for an elderly relative? And which ice creams failed hygiene standards when we tested them?

These, along with a bumper Diwali shopping guide, are just a few of the questions answered in the latest issue of Right Choice, the independent consumer guide that offers  Indian consumers 'Unbiased, expert advice. Always.'

Right Choice is an Indian operation, based in Mumbai, and powered by Which?, the UK's largest consumer organisation and a founder member of Consumers International.

Right Choice is almost five years old and has 30,000 subscribers. Its ambition, though, is to reach hundreds of thousands, maybe eventually millions, of Indian consumers.

We want Right Choice to offer them the type of independent, expert advice that UK consumers have been able to rely on since Which? itself was formed by a group of entrepreneurial friends in London in 1957, friends who were themselves inspired by  Consumer Reports in the US.

So why did Which? set up Right Choice? And why are we now setting up a Right Choice fund offering grants totaling $50,000 (US) to support other Indian organisations working to promote consumer rights in India?

With Right Choice, we want to see if we can use the strength and know-how that Which? has built up over the last 60 years to increase consumer power in India.

It has been a challenging journey. But we knew that was likely at the start; building any new business in today's crowded consumer marketplace is a time consuming and expensive business.

It's particularly challenging for publishing businesses built on the no-advertising model that independent consumer organisations favour as a way to build trust and ensure that they speak as they find.

Right Choice has learned many lessons over the last five years and the excellent team in Mumbai will undoubtedly learn many more before Right Choice realises its full potential.

But we found early on that there is a real appetite among India's fast-growing middle class for the type of independent, research-based advice that it offers.

As a consumer organisation, Right Choice has started where Which? did - offering information and advice.

But, as we grow, we also want to support other Indian organisations that have the ambition and determination to promote consumer rights in India in other ways, including through campaigning and advocacy.

As with Which?'s mission in the UK, Right Choice wants to make Indian consumers as powerful as the organisations they have to deal with in their daily lives. It's a big ambition. But then consumer organisations are used to thinking big.

Six ways to help fight for consumer rights using YouTube

CI's Nina Lanzon examines how the consumer movement is using video to help expose consumer abuses and improve consumer protection. 

How far are you influenced by what you see in an image or video?

With people engaging more with images and videos than any other medium, YouTube and Pinterest are quickly becoming powerful tools that could allow CI Members to communicate with consumers in the digital world.

From cartoon scripts to quirky role play, CI Members are using a range of different techniques to draw our attention to diverse consumer issues and inevitably reinforce the importance of our consumer rights.

Check out our list below to see how CI Member’s are using YouTube to explain consumer issues in more exciting, creative and engaging ways.

1) Which? - May 2013 

Which? present an interesting debate on the ‘future of food’ by using footage from their workshops and interview responses from consumers across the UK. The video highlights some common consumer concerns relating to: the cost of food, food quality, the need to shop locally, knowing what is in our food and how it gets to our stores.

2)   CHOICE Australia - September 2013

Madison Cartwright, Campaigns Co-ordinator at CHOICE uses YouTube as a platform to outline why Australia’s outdated copyright laws are a cause for consumer concern. Set out in a simple ‘question-answer’ format, we can easily engage with the questions asked and the focused follow up answers to learn details of their consumer focused campaign.

3)  Hong Kong Consumer Council - August 2013

This quirky video by the Hong Kong Consumer Council is a great example of how you can use role play in a fun, yet informative way to outline consumer issues and relate it to the ordinary consumer experience. The video acts as a warning for consumers against misleading advertising and false trade descriptions by acting out a transaction exchange between consumer and sales assistant.

4) Altroconsumo - April 2013 (Italian version)

CI’s Italian Member, Altroconsumo uses hidden camera footage in this video to reveal the outcomes of their investigation into banking services offered to Italian consumers. By using this footage, consumers are directly presented with the reality of the consumer issue, without edit or exaggeration. We see it exactly as it is experienced firsthand; in this case banking staff in Milan and Rome offering high bank account costs to ensure their own profitability.

5)    VZBV: Federation of German Consumer Organisations - May 2013 (German version)

VZBV present a clear case for consumer protection in this unique graphic style video. By using cartoon characters to place emphasis on the particularly important points of their message, we remember the exaggerated actions of the cartoon characters to present the consumer story. The script is based on disingenuous customer service, with banking staff selling incorrect assets to consumers for commission.

6)   The Swedish Consumers’ Association – July 2012 (Swedish version)

This ‘how to’ video provides tips and advice on taking steps to protect your online privacy. As well as acting as a warning against how companies use the internet to obtain information about you; the clear, simple presentation style encourages audiences to become conscious and active consumers themselves by following tips to enforce consumer protection in their own digital lives.


Which video message stays in your memory the most? Which video is your favourite?

Diary: Experiencing the ISO Mobile Payments meeting in Boston

Celine Awuor, Project Officer at Consumer Information Network, Nairobi, Kenya relives her experience at the ISO Mobile Payments meeting in Boston. 

Mobile payment services have been in use in Kenya for a long time without a clear regulatory system.

Even though self-regulation in Kenya seems to have worked well, there still are several loopholes in the mobile payment and transactions sector that has left consumers vulnerable to unfair practices, cheating and losses.

Mobile payments are used by millions of consumers, not only in Kenya, but also across the world.

There needs to be an internationally recognised benchmark for guiding the industry and it must include consumer protection.

Without clear and trusted consumer protection features such as redress mechanisms and liability checks for consumers, there is a danger that consumers will pay dearly for poor services.      

But before Boston….

It was CIN’s experience of mobile payments in Kenya that got me involved in the development of the ISO standard on mobile payments around April 2013.

During this time, CI shared with its members, including CIN, a review of the drafting progress which had been ongoing for some time.

The drafts were out for consultation among the Working Group (WG) members. So in this way CIN, as well as other CI members, got to comment on the drafts through CI.

With guidance and coordination from CI’s Sadie Homer and Robin Simpson, we submitted a lot of comments and the CI team did a marvellous job compiling them.

Fundraising

The next step was a physical meeting scheduled in Boston. But there was the big issue of getting funding to attend and the whole process of fundraising that followed was just incredible.

First, there was no time to raise funds, not to mention the other travel preparations that I would need to complete.

Through my membership in the Financial Services Technical Committees (TC) at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) I applied for ISO sponsorship to attend the meeting.

And I am very grateful to KEBS; particularly to the Acting Managing Director Mr. Charles Gachahi, David Kirui and David Nganyi for the support and guidance in making and sending the application.

The response from ISO was great. I got the sponsorship for my travel!  I however still needed money to cover the costs of my visa, accommodation and sustenance in Boston, money that was needed urgently given the short time left (this was now in September already).

CI saves the day…..and me!

When I told CI about the ISO part sponsorship, I also requested if CI could fund the remaining costs.

Well, at the beginning it looked like there were no funds at CI for such costs but it was encouraging knowing that Sadie and the entire team were working hard to get the funds from other partners.

This gave me hope. So when I received a mail from Justin Macmullan that I met the requirements for the Rhoda Karpatkin Fund that CI operates on behalf of their US member Consumer Reports and they would be able to cover the remaining cost, I was super excited!

The visa application process was -  well this is a story for another day! But thankfully, I got the visa in time to travel, just two days before departing for Boston - not bad.

The meeting

I arrived at the meeting venue with Robin, who picked me up at the hotel  armed with his map of Boston.

But I felt sort of afraid as to whether I was really up to the task  - especially when I realised that I was the youngest in the group.

But this deceptive feeling of inadequacy did not last long as we got down to business. The discussions throughout the three days went very well.

We had a successful meeting, with most of our proposals accepted and incorporated in the drafts.

This could be because we were clear on our position and expectations, having already identified the areas in the different papers that we wanted addressed.

For instance, we believed liability was an important aspect that was lacking in the entire ISO 12812 series.

Another important area we were looking at was the redress mechanism for consumer complaints arising from using mobile payments, expected to be evident particularly in the consumer to business transactions.

We were happy when this was also accepted to be included in Paper 5: person-to- business payments. I liked the fact that reaching consensus on the issues being discussed was not difficult.

The next steps include redrafting some parts of the standard. So the work continues.

On the fun side, Boston was great. I had some nice walks around the waterfront, visiting the historic sites such as the Faneuil Hall, Boston Common Park and of course I tried and really liked the seafood there!

Seven films that highlight the importance of consumer protection (that won't send you to sleep)

From a world where nobody is fit enough to stand, to tenacious true stories about lone individuals who take on corporate interests, here is CI's pick of the best movies inspired by consumer rights issues.

Supersize Me (2004)
Director: Morgan Spurlock

Morgan Spurlock's documentary sees him attempt to eat McDonald's for an entire month and perhaps represented a crucial change in the way we perceive fast food generally. Many fast food chains have massively changed their marketing since the movie (also credit due to Eric Schlosser book and subsequent film Fast Food Nation and the growing anti obesity movement), introducing a range of healthier options and in some cases removing 'mega' portion options.

The Insider (1999)
Director: Michael Mann

The long battle to prove that tobacco kills seems almost surreal now. But there was a time when it was highly controversial to claim that ingesting nicotine and smoke might be bad for you.  But this inspiring and powerful tale  illustrates why business has to be held to account by the consumer movement. Michael Mann delivers a dramatic and moving film.

The Constant Gardener (2005)
Director: Fernando Meirelles

Another movie featuring a tenacious hero fighting a lone battle to expose a corporate cover up. Ralph Fiennes plays a widower trying to unlock dark secrets behind his wife's murder. Issues of corporate ethics and irresponsible Big Pharma loom large.

Inside Job (2010)
Director: Charles Ferguson

This documentary may well be the best about the 2008 financial meltdown, an event that will no doubt feature in many a consumer protection case study. Consumers were sold mortgages they could not afford on the basis of dodgy financial advice.  Using layman's terms, this stylish movie explains why this crash occurred and why it was entirely predictable. It also features great interviews as top US officials and academics get rather annoyed by some tough questioning.

Erin Brockovich (2000)
Director: Steven Soderbergh


Another extraordinary film here about the effectiveness of grassroots campaigning and research. Based on a true story, Julia Roberts stars as an unemployed single mother who unearths an environmental scandal that brought about a huge class action lawsuit in the US.

Wall-E (2008)
Director: Andrew Stanton

This movie won an acclaimed critical response for finding a way of bringing urgent planetary issues such as sustainability and waste to children's eyes. Set in the future, robot Wall-E is left to tend to an Earth,  abandoned because it had become overrun with waste. The remaining humans are mainly too fat to move. And in addition to all that it is a romantic tearjerker too!

Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013)
Director: Cullen Hoback

It's been said that online,  if the product is free then you're the product. This documentary, which we have yet to see, promises to show exactly how our data is used by companies like Google and Facebook, assessing threats to our privacy and the possibilities for resisting them.

TPP protest songs: CI takes a pop at secretive trade agreement

Jeremy Malcolm blogs on two new music videos launched today which challenge the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and aim to raise awareness of  this consumer rights issue.

 

As negotiators for the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement meet in Bali this week, consumers remain in the dark about how it will affect them. 

Two new music videos that we release today send a strong message to the negotiators – either open up the agreement, or we need to stop the TPP!

The secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement could overturn rules on topics as diverse as intellectual property, food labelling and financial services regulation in twelve countries of the Pacific Rim. 

From today senior officials from those countries are meeting at the APEC meeting in Bali, where they hope to advance the negotiations towards closure this year.

Consumers deserve to be a part of these negotiations.  So until we find out what the officials are planning to agree on our behalf, we need to stop the TPP! 

That is the simple message that Consumers International sends out today with the release of two new shareable music videos to raise public awareness of this impending threat to consumer rights.

The videos could not be more different from each other, either musically or visually, but both brilliantly convey our concerns about this undemocratic treaty under negotiation.

The first is 'No to the TPP' (No Al TPP), a beautiful and stirring bossanova-style song in Spanish by the Grammy Award nominated Chilean musician Ana Tijoux, with an evocative music video directed by Fourd Alzamora.

The second music video is an irresistibly catchy J-pop number called 'Stop the TPP!' (みんなでストップ！TPP) by Japanese musicians Emi Nakada and Citron178.  They released the audio of their original Japanese version earlier in the year, but today CI launches an accompanying animation video as well as an English language vocal version.  We even have a karoke version to which you can sing along!

Emi explains why she made the song: “The subject matter of the TPP is so complicated that people can't easily understand how it affects them.  To alert the people as soon as possible to the risks surrounding the TPP, I wrote lyrics that explain the TPP to everyone in simple terms, while singing happily!  I want you to please use this song as one quick way to simply convey this message to a lot of people!”

Emi collaborated on the track with Citron178 who is a composer of anime (Japanese animation) songs.  This is particularly apt given that the anime fan subculture is one of those threatened by the TPP's rules on intellectual property, which would interfere with the creation of homages such as fan art and “cosplay” (fancy dress) designs.

She writes: “In Japan, not much is known about the effects of the intellectual property chapter of the TPP, but it is likely to regulate the creation of fan fiction.  So in order to send a message to geeks, who like to make secondary creative works like this, I had to make a song in the style of anime songs.”  But the threat of the TPP goes further.  “Once you join the TPP, genetically modified foods come in, food safety is lost, health and life are threatened... The risk of losing everything you need for living is high.  It is no doubt that it is a primary concern for consumers!”

Please share both of these brilliant music videos as widely as you can, to send a strong message that we need to Stop the TPP!  In the words of Ana's song 'No to the TPP':

A treaty is not democratic if it is made behind the people
And your deal is not a deal if it is made secretly and without consensus
We all have the right and we all want to decide
The future and present of our children and how they want to live
No to the TPP

UNGCP: Positive signs on the long road to change

CI's Head of Asia Pacific and Middle East Indrani Thuraisingham reflects on the outcome of the UN Guidelines meeting.

The UN meeting on the review of its Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP) concluded on 12 July in Geneva.  Essentially the result is positive, but the process from this point forward will be more drawn out than one would have hoped.

The UNCTAD Secretariat, led by Mr Hassan Qaqaya indicated that this was the ‘second and final’ ad hoc meeting in the sequence running up to the revision. Four working groups established (all including CI) at the conclusion of the  meeting will carry the work forward on revisions to the text during the coming year.

Ultimately, however, the UNCTAD Secretariat will finalise the text by July 2014, before passing it through another UN Conference (this one dedicated to restrictive business practices) scheduled for 2015.

Then, in theory, this UN review body could decide to forward the draft to the UN General Assembly for approval, but we have no input into that.

It is not an ideal pathway for the Guidelines, because the UN review body will be composed of competition policy experts, not consumer protection experts. 

Representatives from the Member states were very assertive in the meeting about wanting a wide range of issues included in the revision.

The initial emphasis on financial services and e-commerce would, if left unchallenged, have left the bulk of the Guidelines untouched since 1985, thus defeating much of the purpose of updating them.

Most delegations (with the exception of the US) argued in favour of including data protection when considering amendments to the e-commerce provisions. The Conference went on to consider a whole list of other issues that will be taken forward by a dedicated Working Group.

CI is in a very strong position as, together with our Members, we have already drafted detailed positions. We are therefore able to operate on the basis of present positions with relatively little extra drafting work.

Our efforts will be mainly in arguing for specific terms of reference for the four working groups that were established:

• financial services
• e-commerce
• ‘other issues’ (which includes data protection, cross-border trade , tourism, collective redress, integration with other governmental policies, public services including water and energy and the principle of universal service, transport, real estate (housing), access to knowledge, and abusive advertising)  
• a proposed ‘UN Standing Commission for Consumer Protection’ (a key demand in our original recommendations).

Africa rising: CI takes on new members

The first half of 2013 has been busy for African consumer organisations., says CI's Head of Africa Onica Makwakwa.

Following their participation in the research on organisational sustainability and CI’s renewed focus on organisational empowerment, African consumer organisations in all corners of the region are getting their structures in shape for effective leadership as the voice for consumers in Africa.

The CI Office for Africa is pleased to welcome the following organisations as Full Members of CI after years of participation as Affiliates:

•    Consumers Association of Burundian/Association Burundaise des Consomateurs (ABUCO)

•    Consumer Advocacy Organisation (CAO) in Nigeria

•    Kenya Consumers Organisation (KCO) 

•    National Consumer Forum (NCF) in South Africa

•    Namibia Consumer Trust (NCT)

As more organisations prepare to upgrade to Full Membership, the team in the Africa office continues to forge relationships with new consumer organisations including in countries where CI currently has no Members such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Swaziland.

Member Services Officers, Cathy Rutivi and Xaverine Ndikumagenge, stand ready to assist with new applications, membership upgrades and cultivation of prospective members in the region.

Furthermore, we have completed organisational assessments of Members in Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria through a project funded by the Open Society Initiative of West Africa.

During this next phase, we look forward to implementing training and technical support for enhancing the capacity of CAC in Ghana, ADEC in Senegal and CAO in Nigeria and subsequently opening up the resources to even more organisations within the West Africa hub and throughout the region. 

In the meantime, we invite all African consumer advocates to connect with each other on the African Consumers International Facebook. 

CI strategy direction begins to bear fruit

As CI publishes its Annual Report Summary for 2012, outgoing Director General Helen McCallum reflects on another busy year.

Consumers International has achieved an amazing amount in the past year. Despite the uncertain economic climate, in 2012 we managed to ensure that the consumer voice was heard at some of the most high-level decision-making events.

Our annual report summary highlights some of these achievements, including our actions on World Consumer Rights Day; our role in the revision of the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection; our involvement in the G20/OECD taskforce to create principles for financial consumer protection; our contribution to the development of WHO policy on non-communicable diseases; and our organisation of a first-of-its-kind international gathering looking at the challenges consumers will face in the new digital landscape.

Our new strategy of focusing on a small number of consumer issues for which there is something to be achieved at the international level is working. This is because we are concentrating on areas for which most of our Members have active work programmes and can therefore pool and share ideas: financial services, food, consumer protection, and digital rights.

Our Organisational Empowerment programme is developing services which can bring Members together – either in their own backyard or across the globe – to share information and resources, to learn from the experience of others and to offer or receive mentoring services from those who have more years of experience or have developed an idea which is now transferable somewhere else.

As always, we are seeking additional sources of funding – both to sustain CI itself and to support targeted activity within our four priority areas. Our new Strategic Plan (pdf) is making it easier for us to achieve this.

As always, none of this would be possible without the continued hard work of our membership. My time as Director General will come to an end in December 2013, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters and partners for your spirit, dedication and commitment to the movement.

The way forward is now established and CI is in a great position to help realise the aim of supporting our Members by providing the benefits you need most and developing a powerful consumer movement equal to the challenges of the 21st Century.

Mapping our members to help them grow

Indrani Thuraisingham looks at how CI’s recent evaluation of its members will help us build a stronger consumer movement. 

Consumers International is its members. Without them, we would not have the authority, expertise, reach or influence we can draw upon at the international level.

We would have no mandate to speak as the global voice for consumers, and no legitimacy when trying to advance consumer rights across the world.

That is why, late last year, we undertook a unique study to map the sustainability of our member organisations – to see where they are strong, where they need help, and where we can make a difference.

Today, we publish the aggregated results of this Sustainable Business Model Survey. They make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the health of the consumer movement and the sustainability of NGOs more generally.

Complex, but crucial

This was a necessarily complex survey that required a great deal of effort on behalf of the respondents. Even so, two thirds of our global membership responded to the survey, giving us an unprecedented picture of the business structure, programme effectiveness, financial performance and institutional capacity of the majority of CI’s member organisations.

With this information, we are now able to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of business models, draw out commonalities, and bring attention to areas of risk and underdevelopment.

We have been able to grade each organisations with regards its sustainability and plan to benchmark this against their development for years to come.

Unsurprisingly, 87% of CI members who were assessed are either ‘overall sustainable’ or ‘fairly sustainable’ – an indication of the quality of management present in the consumer movement.

But we were also able to identify some runaway success stories, as well as clear areas where groups were struggling.

An array of business models

Perhaps most interestingly were the variations in the business models being applied, with some brilliant examples from every part of the world:

• The Network Model:  where the CO establishes 'subsidiaries' of independent organisations that carry out specific CO functions and generate their own income (39% CI members operate are utilising  this Model)
• The Public-Private Partnership Model: where the CO forms a symbiotic relationship with a privately owned corporation with a consumer rights interest and receives commission/ percentage in return for their role. (14% CI members operate using this Model)
• The Service Delivery Model:  where the CO charges fees in delivering CO functions such as research , legal advice, product testing. (27% CI members operate using this Model)
•  The Entrepreneurial Model:  where the CO establishes a “business entity” generating a market base that utilises their products and services to generate income for the CO and the shareholders of its enterprise (2% CI members operate using this Model)

Helping members to help themselves

CI will now use these survey results as a spring board for our Organisational Empowerment (OE) programme – primarily to identify the areas we can offer assistance.

This has already begun with the online launch of the CI Resource Zone: a digital library of resources, research, publications, webinars, videos, and how-to guides geared towards the consumer movement.

Users can already leave comments and provide feedback on any of the 150 or so resources currently uploaded and, over time, the Resource Zone will develop into a space where CI Members, Supporters and other partners can share their own materials.

This is a first step in helping our members to help themselves. We are already looking at more targeted assistance, based in part on the survey results, and ideas for future partnerships and collaborations.

The survey has enabled CI to generate a set of criteria to benchmark COs on their sustainability and allow CI to prioritise its OE programme based on organisational needs.

Baseline data can be used as a reference point to assess members’ progress towards achieving sustainability.

The survey can be repeated in the future to monitor progress made by members following the implementation of the OE activities.

This, however, will depend on funding as well as organisational needs and demands.

Over the last five decades, CI membership has grown from five founding organisations to over 240 consumer groups in more than 115 countries.

It is clear that if we are to continue to grow our membership in a sustainable way, we will need to give close care and attention to the structure, viability and relevance of consumer groups wishing to be part of CI.

Making sure our member organisations are fit for purpose is crucial to achieving that goal.

A lift for consumer protection in China

CI’s Luke Upchurch on how our newest Supporter organisation is a step in the right direction for consumer protection in China.

Apparently, there are 1.6 million elevators in the China. It’s one of those statistics that brings home the enormity of this nation and the mind-boggling size of its growth.

It was also the subject of a memorable anecdote at the launch of China’s first Research Centre for Policy and Law on Global Consumer Protection. The Centre is the latest organisation to take advantage of our new CI Supporter category of association.

Established by Wuhan University, one of China’s oldest academic institutions, the Centre is one of only a handful in the world dedicated to the study and development of global consumer protection and law. CI was at the inaugural event to present our latest findings on the state of consumer protection and welcome the Centre into the global consumer movement.

The ‘elevator pitch’, put forward by an eminent law professor at the event, began by pointing to the safety regulations for lifts in China: the frequency of effective inspections, the need for certification, the liability of the building’s owners and the statutory rights of anyone injured whilst using the elevator.

Consumer protection in China, the professor argued, needed to adopt a similar framework. It was a thought-provoking example; one of many during this two day event.

For instance Connie Lau, until recently head of the Hong Kong Consumer Council and now adviser to UNCTAD, spoke of the conflict between prudential regulation of financial services and consumer protection – a point picked up by Wuhan’s Professor Zhou who raised the failures of the Chinese regulators to stamp out malpractices.

In the same vain, Ying Yu of the Wuhan Centre pointed to the fact that China had as yet no bank deposit guarantee for consumers in operation, despite being under consideration for many years.

Both of these issues have been recently highlighted in CI’s work on the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection (the focus of the Wuhan conference).   

Other interventions focused on the remarkable level of internet use in China. Wuhan University’s Professor Qisheng HE pointed out that there are 538 million web users in China – 210 million of which shop online, 187 million are online bank users.

These are staggering figures for a country that – like many others – has few viable avenues for consumers to seek redress in online commerce disputes. There were also revealing presentations on counterfeit consumption, sustainability, data security, as well as much on the UN Guidelines.

From the degree of understanding and analysis on display at the event, it’s clear that some in China have woken up to the need for higher standards of consumer protection – not just to reassure global markets about the quality of its exports, but also as a harbinger of growth in its own domestic consumer economy.

A point further emphasised by recent indications that the authorities are considering allowing China’s consumers to pursue class actions for the first time.

The Wuhan Centre is a milestone on a journey, not only as a means for China to explore international standards in consumer protection, but also for the rest of the world to understand the impact of consumer rights development in a country that boasts one-sixth of the world’s population. What happens here will, and does, affect us all.

Those clever minds in China looking at consumer protection already know the pressing issues at hand. As do most Chinese consumers: product safety, fake goods, sustainability, financial services, digital consumer rights and, above all, effective legislation and enforcement.

The Wuhan Centre, and, by acquiescence, China’s authorities know the benefits an international perspective can bring to this challenge: it is why both the state and China’s consumer rights experts are so keen to get involved in the revision of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection – something CI is uniquely placed to offer the Wuhan Centre, along with our other Members, Supporters, and partners in China and across the world.

By becoming a CI Supporter organisation we hope the rest of the global consumer rights movement can help the Wuhan Centre navigate a path of best practice as it seeks to elevate consumer justice and protection for China's 1.35 billion people.  

If you would like to find out more about becoming a Member or Supporter of CI, please visit the Join us section on the CI website.

Netflix, football rights and the future of media competition

Phil Evans, Coordinator of the International Network of Consumer Antitrust Advisers, reports from Day 2 of the 2013 OECD Global Forum on Competition.

Day one of the Global Forum on Competition focused on the relationship between competition policy and poverty.

While there were some standout examples from developing countries of the link and indeed some good presentations about how technology and regulation can help deal with some aspects of poverty, in the end it felt a bit like having watched a big Hollywood Blockbuster: you enjoyed it at the time, but afterwards it felt a bit like you had not really learned a lot and what you had learned had not really been that new.

So, on Day 2, we moved onto a review of two issues. The morning opened with a discussion of competition issues in media markets and a discussion of a review carried out between the OECD and the International Competition Network about competition agency cooperation experiences.

The discussion on media competition issues was quite detailed in terms of agency interventions and outlines, with many covering the same issues. It was enlivened by presentations from Netflix and Canal+, the big French broadcaster.

Their involvement was particularly useful as they currently sit on either side of a major dispute in media analysis. Canal+ as an incumbent broadcaster is being squeezed by Netflix, a company using broadband to deliver streaming content. Canal+ spent a fair bit of time pleading for a level playing field (code for: ‘please restrict Netflix’) while Netflix pleaded to be left alone (code for: ‘let us hog all the bandwidth for free’).

On balance, Netflix made the better case, in part because Canal+ were taking the long-established line of the incumbent under pressure: ‘please extend regulation so the new guy has to have the same costs as we do’; while Netflix could present themselves as the innovative new kid on the block.

Of course, it is more complex than that, but the debate was an interesting snippet of where discussions on media competition are likely to be heading. Interestingly, the presence of Netflix in the UK was used as a significant factor in the Competition Commission's report on the market for Pay-TV. (Caveat: I am a Member of the UK CC, but did not sit on the inquiry.)

One thing confirmed by the discussion on media competition was the global importance of football (the version that actually revolves around kicking a ball with your feet).

Agency after agency talked of the centrality of sports rights to media markets and the gradual downplaying of movie rights as a source of concern. 

Of course, this could simply boil down to the difference between a monopoly supplier of a sport (the league) with an oligopoly in the shape of the movie studios. Either way, football rights cropped up in country after country as a source of concern.

One refreshing view that cropped up throughout the conference was the interventions from Tunisia, who would regularly tie the issues under discussion with the effect of the Arab Spring on the country.

The discussion of a growth of media sources after liberalisation was refreshing to hear and the agency bought a bit of youthful dynamism to the discussions.

The final session focused on the knotty problem of cooperation between agencies. The topic is enormously important to agencies and indeed the companies they are reviewing, but is very much part of the regular dialogue between agencies and has taken on almost semi-religious tones and pleadings.

At root, the issue is the problem for agencies to exercise their legal powers within borders while dealing with requests for information from outside their borders that present huge legal problems to comply with. Despite progress, this issue will keep being a topic of discussion for years to come.

Helen McCallum's India Diary: Call for collective action

CI Director General Helen McCallum travelled throughout India recently, meeting with many CI members, to discuss how a vast country with a disparate population can most effectively promote consumer rights. In Part 1 of her blog, she examines the existing situation.

Even before arriving in India, the advice one regularly hears, “don’t drink the water”, points to one of the key consumer issues in this vast and vibrant country.

The trip from the airport in Chennai certainly confirmed that for many people access to basic services is still where the main problems lie.

But the other half of India, witnessed in the Bandra district of Mumbai, reveals problems more often associated with well-to-do consumers: misselling of financial services; access to cost-effective energy services; junk food advertising; and the miss-use of private data gathered through the Internet.

The consumer movement in India certainly faces an extremely difficult challenge: to support the needs of a widely diverse population. Luckily, on my travels I also found some energetic and committed people and organisations ready and willing to tackle this challenge.

On arrival in Chennai, someone told me that there are more than 1,000 consumer organisations (COs) in India. How many of those are active and viable no one seems to know.

Those that I met, including active CI members from Tamil Nadu in the South to Mumbai in the west to Delhi in the North, as well as the many organisations represented at CI’s annual Asia Pacific and Middle East regional meeting were all effective in their various ways.

What I found was enormous diversity in terms of organisational strengths and activities – all united by a vision of the empowered consumer.

For example, CI member MGP in Mumbai runs a food cooperative supplying more than 95 essential household items to more than 32,000 families in West India.

They deal in locally-produced goods which are high in quality and short on packaging, making a significant contribution both to community cohesion in a large urban environment and to sustainable consumption.

MGP’s work empowers a large numbers of consumers in a really practical way. Families who are part of their network remain members for life, many of them offering their services as volunteers to support the additional work on consumer education and advocacy campaigns which are an essential part of MGP’s activity.

MGP enjoys good media support for their campaigns and have had a number of high profile successes but they still need to be able to access more expertise to back up their lobbying and enable them to do even more.

The strength of other COs such as CI members CAI  and CAG in Chennai, and CUTS and Voice in the North lies in consumer advocacy, education, awareness and mediation.

CAI has just extended their helpline service which enables consumers to call them and leave a message to register a concern or complaint and receive a call back to support them in resolving it.

Consumer courts in India are notorious for taking a long time to reach a resolution – with the consumer often left in limbo for years waiting for redress.

This is the reason for the emphasis on mediation which I found throughout India and which also appeals to the Indian culture, resulting as it does in a win/win result rather than a win/lose result which is inevitably the outcome of court action.

Consumer clubs in schools and universities were another feature of my visit – Indian consumer groups believe in catching them young – and with good reason.

Such clubs frequently act as the breeding grounds for the next generation of consumer activists as well as helping young people avoid potential pitfalls, creating savvy consumers for the future and using their influence within the family to alert their parents and relatives.

This clearly gives the many volunteers associated with COs in India a real sense of progress and satisfaction.

I met only one group who have established laboratory facilities for testing consumer products and that was CERC based in Ahmedabad. Although I wasn’t able to visit the labs, I met with the CEO and one of the trustees and had an in-depth briefing on the capability and range of testing they were able to do.

Other organisations were keen to carry comparative data in their magazines and some were clearly wanting to move into this area in a much bigger way.

Information services are common and consumer magazines well read – although not many of them bring revenue to the publishing organisation.

One example which does is the Right Choice magazine in Mumbai, an initiative to discover if the Which? subscription magazine model – so successful in the UK – could thrive among India’s developing middle classes.

The magazine is set at a high price for India at 100INR an issue (just more than one GBP and the equivalent of 1.8USD and 1.5EUR).

After a slow start – perhaps to be expected in such a varied population – Right Choice is beginning to gain ground with 25,000 subscribers – 7,000 of them recruited since January this year.

The magazine – like its parent body Which? – takes no advertising and ultimately aims to raise revenue from consumers prepared to subscribe to support services for all consumers – the first expression of which is a 50,000USD fund to be made available from July this year to support consumer advocacy in India.

Right Choice has made an additional commitment to testing Indian products through CERC, bringing much needed revenue to this organisation. 

Sustaining the Indian consumer movement

Investment such as that made by Right Choice in Indian consumer affairs may help a little and the fund raising acuity and ingenuity of Indian organisations in attracting excellently qualified often retired volunteers to the cause means that most organisations teeter along.

But the reality is still that financial sustainability is the key issue for all groups. Project funding – including some from government sources – is all well and good but it is short term, tied to specific activities and contributes little to the organisational infrastructure.

Nothing remains to undertake new initiatives and developments which are both possible and urgently needed.

So, as it is for CI, the outstanding need for Indian COs is for unrestricted, no-strings-attached funding sources which can help increase expertise and modernise services to meet the myriad challenges facing rich and poor Indian consumers alike.