Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change
In Africa and Asia-Pacific, positive responses
outweigh negative ones in general terms, and
positive responses also outweigh the negative
in all specific areas.
Specific Experiences
Members of Consumers International were
also asked to submit case studies on the
impact and the need for representation.
Respondents were asked to give an example of
where their organisation had changed a policy,
effected enforcement or had a positive impact
on consumers through exercising the right to
representation, and to describe the situation
before, the actions taken, and the situation
today. Respondents were also asked to submit
an example of where the organisation believes
that better representation would lead to a
significant improvement for consumers.
Some 45 case studies on impact and need
were received. Many of these were quite brief,
simply naming the area in which progress had
been made or greater representation sought.
Others were more descriptive, and a selection
of these is included in Annexes B and C.
While the quantitative analysis above
highlights the similarity of members’ work,
the case studies illustrate their diversity. This
is evident not only in the range of issues
presented, but in the tone and terms in
which these are described.
CI members in Denmark, Australia and
Germany, for example, said they were at pains
to complete the questionnaire, given the
extensive nature of their representation work.
“We are probably not typical,” wrote Benedicte
Federspiel of the Danish Consumer Council,
“because we are represented on all issues in our
ministries, on public committees, through
written consultation, in meetings, etc. We sit on
about 250 permanent councils and committees,
in addition to our ad hoc meetings with a wide
range of institutions, industries, etc.”
Nonetheless, while she judged that
“overall, our impact is good,” she noted that
representation on its own does not guarantee
success, since impact “also depends on
whether the political party or industry in
question wants to give in to consumers or not.”
Equally untypical was the response sent from
a regional branch of Argentina’s Unión de
Usuarios y Consumidores (UUC). “As evidence
of the absolute lack of protection faced by
consumers in our province,” writes Graciela
Yamaguchi, from Posadas, “we are unable to
respond positively to any of the questions on
representation in the CI member survey.” This
comment reflects the difficulties of conducting
consumer representation away from capital
cities and centres of legislative and political
power. Case studies submitted by UUC offices
in Posadas and in Buenos Aires describe similar
quests – obtaining consumer representation on
the regulatory boards of local public utilities. In
Buenos Aires, a consumer representative from
UUC headquarters has been appointed to an
oversight commission of the main water
supplier, and reports that, after just six months,
“it is premature to evaluate results.” In Posadas,
where no regulatory mechanisms exist for
oversight of the state-owned electricity
monopoly, the UUC branch office strategy is
to obtain a voice in mechanisms set up for its
eventual privatisation.
Securing consumer representation in
privatisation processes is a goal cited in
several cases studies, with success stories told
by Slovak Consumer Association, in energy,
and the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, with
its participation in the National Economic
Consultative Forum. But winning a seat at the
table does not ensure that the appropriate
representative will sit there. “We have been
successful in having consumer representatives
placed on various committees overseeing the
privatisation of public enterprises,” writes
Alphonse Issi of Cameroon’s Mouvement
National des Consommateurs. “Unfortunately,
those potentially effective appointments have
often fallen upon persons who have no reason
to represent consumers.”
While the eclipse of state ownership may
provide new opportunities for some types of
representation, it closes avenues for others.
Emil Bojin, of Romania’s Association for
Consumer Protection, reports that successful
consumer representation is increasingly
difficult to obtain, in part because “authorities