Realising-consumer-rights

But are consumers leaving themselves exposed to legal action by
monopoly industries threatened by negative feedback, as the line
between open criticism and libel becomes blurred Legal minds in the
UK are struggling with this balance in the case of potentially defamatory
remarks on Twitter and sites like Solicitorsfromhell.
We might ask how deep the companies’ commitments to change run,
if they are a reaction to intense, visible pressure. Arguably, so-called
‘clicktivism’ means companies are just getting smarter at responding to
the fast moving conversation, as opposed to genuine engagement with
their customers. Perhaps lessons can be applied from the civic space where
the right to be heard has been more successfully enacted as citizens have
demanded data to be opened up and used crowdsourcing techniques to
analyse masses of information, such as in the MP’s expenses scandal.
4. The right to safety: To be protected against
products, production processes and services that
are hazardous to health or life
One of Kennedy’s original rights, the right to safety, was born of a time
where goods like washing machines, toasters, kettles and TVs trundled
off re-invigorated post war production lines into people’s homes. In the
dash for shiny new labour saving devices, safety considerations were left
behind and consumers had no way of knowing how to choose and use
a device safely. Now standards and quality marks are commonplace, but
these are part of the suite of hard fought consumer protections won by
the movement over the years. These battles are still being fought in many
developing and emerging economies where assurances over the safety of
processes and substances are not a given.
Beyond hazardous substances and processes, safety in the 21st century
means something very different for citizens and consumers whose
experiences are increasingly lived (and recorded) online. This is a crucial
new safety concern for many (see page 44). 54
More open data and widely available transparency tools may play a
larger role in holding providers to account when processes fall short –
something that is being seen in food safety mapping such as that done
by Consumer Focus’s now disbanded web development team, CFLabs.
The amplified voice can speak up for the people involved in production
too, for example the SumofUs campaign that pressured high street shops
to introduce a safety code of conduct for workers in the aftermath of
the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh.
54
http://bit.ly/1gUqh9w
Realising consumer rights
33