WCRD 2017: CONSUMER RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

CI is pleased to announce the theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2017 will be ‘Consumer Rights in the Digital Age’.

Over the coming weeks CI will be working with our Members to develop campaign and advocacy ideas that will form the basis for our World Consumer Rights Day activities. If you would like to feed into this work please contact Anna on aglayzerATconsint.org.

Rapid change
Well over 3 billion, or 40% of the world’s population is online now, compared with just 1% in 1995, with all projections suggesting this number will continue to rise.

Although this still leaves many consumers who are struggling to access these technologies, the rapid growth of the internet, mobile phones and other digital technologies has created opportunities and challenges for millions of consumers around the world.

Whilst consumers undoubtedly benefit from the increased access, choice and convenience that these technologies deliver, questions remain about how to improve the quality of services, which online services consumers can trust, what happens to the data they share online and what consumers’ rights are in relation to digital products.

The sheer pace of change is also a challenge. Whereas the telephone took 75 years to reach an audience of 50 million, Facebook took one year, and Instagram took just 6 months. A 2015 poll of CI Members suggested that in many countries regulation was failing to respond fast enough.

Consumer summit
As part of the activities for WCRD 2017, CI will be co-hosting a consumer summit that will be part of the official G20 agenda. The event will be co-hosted with our German member VZBV as part of Germany’s presidency of the G20, and will be a major contribution to CI’s WCRD activities next year.

More information will follow soon.