Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

20 World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change Model 3: Public participation This model focuses on direct involvement of members of the public in a variety of consultation forums. Methods range from traditional open public meetings to web-based discussion forums. Although these approaches do gather the authentic voice of ordinary consumers, they seldom involve many people, and the participants are often self-selected. As a consequence, participatory methods are better for testing the range and flavour of opinions among the public than they are for obtaining a representative picture of people’s needs and views. As with formal open consultation, final judgements on policy usually rest with decision-makers, and the input from public and consumer participation is treated as one source of information among many. Over the last decade, a number of new consultative techniques have caused excitement among academics, politicians and other decision-makers looking for ways to revitalise flagging levels of democratic involvement. Methods such as citizens’ juries and user panels invite small groups of people to engage with specific policy problems, with support and information from professionals. The results are interesting, showing that ordinary consumers can deal with complex problems, but the events are expensive and are not large enough to be representative. Like other participatory methods, much of their value lies in forcing decision-makers to talk face-to-face with ordinary consumers and to hear people’s complaints and concerns for themselves. Model 4: Research-based approaches Consumers’ needs, experiences and views can also be discovered by traditional research methods. Questionnaire surveys, user trials and qualitative “focus groups” are familiar tools for consumer organisations, government and industry, and they provide hard information to enable the consumer interest to be taken into account in policy-making. Other research methods, such as those based on patterns of consumer use of products and services, and analysis of complaints data, can also be useful. However, research results simply provide information, and in the absence of other forms of representation, decision-makers can choose to use it as it suits them. Even when other models of listening to consumers are used, such as formal representation on committees or open consultations, it is likely that research on consumer experiences and views will be extremely valuable for helping those who speak for consumers to understand and represent their constituency. Model 5: Special legal powers for consumer organisations In some countries, consumer organisations have won specific legal powers to allow them to represent consumers collectively. For example, they can initiate legal action where a firm’s contract terms are unfair. Where these legal powers are granted in recognition of consumers’ right to be heard, they constitute a specific form of consumer representation. In countries without this entitlement, in contrast, consumer organisations must initiate legal actions with the same status (and same difficulties) as anyone else who wants to use the law. - by Colin Brown, Chairman of the UK Financial Services Consumer Panel, the statutory body that provides consumer input to the UK Financial Services Authority.
World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change Examples from Asia Consumer associations in Asia have made major strides in being recognised as legitimate representatives of the consumer interest. They have been legitimised by statute, given standing before the courts and other redress agencies to represent the consumer interest, and have been provided membership in consumer policy-making agencies. They participate in industrymaintained alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and even negotiate codes and charters on their own initiative. Representation provided by statute Many Asian countries today have statutes styled as Consumer Protection Codes/Acts. The first of these was introduced by Japan in 1968. Three features found in some of these statutes enhance the representative role of consumer associations: • They provide for the establishment of consumer organisations and specify that the legitimate function of these organisations is to represent the consumer interest. Codes define consumer organisations and specify their functions. Some also provide for the granting of a subsidy. • Consumer protection statutes generally provide consumer organisations with the required “standing” to initiate actions on behalf of individual consumers or class of consumers in the courts or in specially created alternative redress mechanisms. Theses statutes provide consumer associations a privileged status by permitting them to bring public interest litigation, or even substituted actions on behalf of a consumer. • Consumer protection statutes establish consultative councils and specifically provide for representation in them of the consumer interest by representatives of consumer associations. These consultative or advisory councils also have representatives from government agencies and industry. Representation in government and industry consultative mechanisms Consumer organisations represent the consumer interest in a number of national, state and district level government committees focusing on specific areas of policy formulation, standards or programme implementation. The Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (FOMCA) for instance, is a member of no less than 40 government committees. Consumer associations participate in nongovernmental and industry networks that focus on a variety of subject areas (environment, tourism, child welfare, etc.) Representation in industry-funded mediation schemes Industry-funded mediation services (such as Malaysia’s insurance and banking mediation boards, modelled after the UK’s Ombudsman Bureau) act as an independent arbitrator in cases referred by consumers. The mediator is empowered to make awards of up to a specified maximum that is binding on the insurance company or bank concerned but not the consumer. The consumer is free to reject the award and exercise their legal rights. Representation by the initiative of consumer groups Consumer groups in many countries have initiated standard-setting charters detailing the rights of consumers. In India, for example, over 100 Citizen Charters have been enacted and announced by a special department of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. While charters, codes and other “soft law” options to government regulation are not effective in all situations, they are certainly a measure of the stature of consumer associations in obtaining the agreement of the associations of professionals in those fields. However, the effectiveness of these schemes must be viewed in the context of the bargaining process and quality of representation involved. – Dr Sothi Rachagan 21
Page 1 and 2: Voices for Change: The Consumer Rig
Page 3 and 4: Voices for Change: The Consumer Rig
Page 5 and 6: World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voi
Page 19: World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voi

Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?