Strengthening the Consumer Protection Regimes

CUTS announces launch of the project entitled 'Strengthening the Consumer Protection Regime'. The term Consumer Protection is a comprehensive term comprising not only a set of regulations and legal framework but also a commitment to protect consumers against deprivation from the basic needs of life, and ensuring a respectable living.

The United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection, 1985 stresses and urges the role of governments to develop and maintain a strong consumer protection policy. Each government should set its own priorities for the protection of consumers in accordance with the economic, social and environmental circumstances of the country and the needs of its population, bearing in mind the costs and benefits of proposed measures.

Governments all over the world have been trying to build a strong legal and regulatory framework to ensure consumer interests’ and welfare. While some countries already have a well developed consumer protection regime in place, there are many countries that are in process of evolving such regime.

The report aims to compile and conduct an analysis of The State of Consumers Around the World by collecting Country Chapters, a 10-12 pager essays on the Consumer Protection Regime.
We have prepared a template paper on India, which will serve as a guide for pattern and format for other papers to follow Click Here>>.

The report will serve as a platform:

• to identify the prevailing gap between the ideal and actual situation in the countries on individual basis and attempt to fill in that gap by following good practices of a well developed Consumer Protection Regime;

• for comparative analysis between developed, developing and under-developed countries on their approaches to Protection of Consumers; and

• for strengthening the knowledge base of the civil society organisations, governments, intergovernmental organisations and other stakeholders by providing a ready reckoner in the form of a comprehensive report

We invite volunteers to contribute the paper of their respective countries which will be published under their authorship in the report. We do not have any specific funding for this project, but are ready to devote minimal resources to manage the project. As a compensation, we will be happy to offer you a free copy of the published report in both hard copy and a CD.

CUTS recently published a similar report with voluntary contributions from writers around the world, which can be seen at www.competitionregimes.com. The website has a priced access, but we will be happy to provide a password to those who are interested.

We would value your suggestions and recommendations for further improvement in the format of the paper and will be glad to receive the same at c-cier@cuts.org.