Achieving balanced markets is an important goal for the norwegian Consumer Council.
With an increasingly global economy and stronger pressure on the individual consumer it's important that we make an effort where the gain will be greatest for the consumers.
You can read all about our priorities in the strategic plan for the years 2002 through 2005.
Balanced markets - The Consumer Council's Strategic Plan 2002- 2005
I. DEVELOPMENT TRENDS
Globalization
Concentration of power
International regulations
Technological developments
Communication technology
From public to private ownership
II. THE CHALLENGES FOR CONSUMER POLICY – IMPORTANT POLICY AREAS
Sustainable consumption
International challenges and commitment
Information technology
Questions relating to food
Questions relating to housing
Public services
Standardization
Personal finances – problems with debts
Consumer education
III. INFORMATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CONSUMER POLICY
A strong position in the opinion market
Around-the-clock service
IV. LEGISLATION AND PROCEDURES FOR SOLVING DISPUTES AS INSTRUMENTS OF CONSUMER POLICY
The priorities of the local consumer offices
Boards of complaints
Cases of principle and group actions
V. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE PERIOD 2002 - 2005
Priorities
International work
Increased internationalization, both from a European and a global perspective, will have far-reaching consequences and result in extensive challenges for the Consumer Council over the next four years. From the consumer’s perspective, the globalization of the economy can be defined as “the possibility to produce anything, anywhere in the world, with the desired quality, and to sell it to anybody you want, anywhere in the world”.
The effects of globalization can be seen in a variety of areas: concentration of power, international regulations and technological developments.
Our economic system is changing. We experience increased trade of goods and services across national borders. One of the most serious challenges will be how the consumer can benefit from the economic possibilities that globalization has to offer. Increased competition and the use of the market as a control mechanism both nationally and internationally will mean that power in the market is concentrated in ever fewer hands.
Concentrated possession of copyrights and patents and a lack of openness will all pull in the same direction. Among the important challenges will also be how we on the consumer side can work against this development and strengthen the position of the consumer, and how we can assure that “unprofitable” customers also have a choice, both nationally and internationally.
The trend here is towards fewer and less stringent trade barriers. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Union (EU) are the two bodies that set the most important legal frameworks for the internationalization of global and European trade respectively. In negotiations of trade agreements, consumer interests and health and environmental concerns are usually absent. The EEA agreement will mean that our country will also feel virtually the full weight of the harmonized regulations in the consumer sector – Norwegian regulations may come under pressure and traditional consumer rights may be weakened.
Developments in communications and information technology have led to massive changes in the possibilities of communicating between countries. Geographical distance is becoming less and less significant. Technology developments are important to internationalization, but at the same time they call for an internationalization of rules so that they can be utilized to good effect. Consumer policy will face the challenge of enabling us all to benefit from what these developments produce.
Technological developments will also pave the way for new arenas and ways in which to practise policies – and that includes consumer policy. We will increasingly witness activism where large numbers of people sharing similar views or goals gather via the Internet and exercise power independent of borders and distances.
In the future global market, we see a consumer policy where the catchwords will be consumer activism, negotiation and lawsuits.
Technological developments will make their mark on the everyday life of consumers even more than they do today. We will see a fusion of data, telecommunication and TV technologies. Many actors in the market will be able to offer the same services, and the competition to attract and keep consumers will be hard. We will gain increased access to information, increased access to an expanding supply of goods and services.
The new technologies present us with new challenges when it comes to the protection of privacy, security and rights. The choice of law and rights in connection with cross-border disputes will be important for consumers. What’s more, we may run the risk that the freedom and free services we enjoy today may be replaced in the future by copyright requirements and demands for payment, while at the same time the markets become dominated by just a few players.
We will also witness more distinct differences among the population when it comes to the knowledge they enjoy – a gap will emerge between those who have access to, and know how to use, the technology and those who do not have this possibility. An increasing number of consumers will experience that the demands for speed imposed by the worlds of technology, work and business are self-intensifying, forcing them to meet ever tighter deadlines in more and more aspects of their lives.
A characteristic feature of the last 10 to 15 years is that the market has been increasingly used as a regulating mechanism with the consequence that political control has been reduced. More and more public sectors that supply consumers with goods and services have been deregulated and opened up to competition. Increased market power and increased concentration of companies, industries and production and distribution branches set great demands for public control and supervision.
Another challenge will be to allow as many consumers as possible to enjoy the benefits of the competition in the various markets, and to ensure that all consumers get their share of the profits in the form of higher quality and reduced prices. On the other hand, we will also experience situations in some markets where increased competition will actually create higher costs both for the public and the individual consumer. It will become important to ensure for all consumers in the country vital services such as communications, energy, housing and safe, nutritious food.
Public services will also have to open up in the future to user-oriented concepts and competition in response to the challenges that the authorities will be faced with. It will therefore be of continued importance to subject public services to consumer demands.
II. THE CHALLENGES FOR CONSUMER POLICY – IMPORTANT POLICY AREAS
It is a fact that growth in consumption following today’s pattern cannot take place without future generations paying the costs. Our consumption of material resources has to be reduced, and an increased quality of life must replace our increased material prosperity. To embark successfully on such a development it is important to concentrate on consumer information about the environmental aspects of products and the relation between the environment and consumption.
The right conditions must be created for those consumers who want to influence society’s development by what we call political or ethical consumption. More consumers must be influenced to make the most of their increased prosperity to choose products that are manufactured under the proper conditions, are durable and can be repaired when they break down. We see a clear trend towards increased consumer activism in this field. Access to communication technologies is an precondition for this to happen.
Economic globalization with fewer and less stringent trade barriers and easier communication implies great challenges for consumer policy. For the Consumer Council, it is more important than ever to get involved at an international level. Decisions that will define the everyday life of consumers will be increasingly made outside of Norway, whether in political bodies or in big multinational companies.
The EEA agreement and the single market will also entail important consequences for consumers in the future. A decisive factor for the success of the single market will be that consumers trust the market. This confidence can only be obtained if consumers feel sure that the products they are offered fulfil relevant safety standards, that they can invoke common minimum rights and that they have recourse to reliable complaint systems.
Consumers may be able to enjoy benefits in the form of a larger range of goods and services and increased competition in price and quality. But on the other hand, the tendency may develop that initiatives and arrangements which can improve the consumers’ situation will come into in conflict with the free competition between the economic actors.
The Consumer Council’s work and involvement within the various fields must increasingly take place in the international arena. More frequent cooperation with the BEUC (the European Consumer Organization) and CI (Consumers International) will be our goal. The EU is also a central arena for Norwegian consumer policies. For the same reason it will remain important to focus on the Nordic cooperation. And in every forum, we must push through the fact that consumer policy is not simply a sectoral policy but one that extends across all policy fields.
The technological developments will influence consumption, consumers and consumer policies in several ways. Our everyday lives will, for better and for worse, become more technological than before. It will be important to ensure that all consumers in the country have equal access to these technological developments, broadband for example.
We will also be faced with a wider range of goods and services. This is especially true of services which are particularly well suited for e-commerce.
This development will feature several positive aspects: better access, better information (provided the information can be relied on), simpler, lower expenses for the manufacturer, increased competition and lower prices for the consumer as the end user. It is important that our work enables consumers to get their fair share of these benefits. What’s more, it is important to work against actual software monopolies. The Consumer Council will promote knowledge of alternatives in the form of open source software.
The technological developments also create, however, fertile soil for gaps in knowledge between consumers to grow. The distinctions will be between those who can make use of the new technologies and those who, for various reasons, will not have that choice. The Consumer Council will work towards ensuring that all consumers have access to the information they need independent of the IT –skills they possess. The objective is to enable consumers – through all available channels, not only digital ones. It is necessary to ensure that the protection of privacy, security and rights are maintained and developed. The problems that consumers can face in cross-border disputes and choice of law have to be solved, and we must work to stop new differences being created between groups of consumers. All consumers must have the same rights and the same opportunities.
The Consumer Council will work towards ensuring that the following basic consumer demands in connection with food are fulfilled:
The Consumer Council will work with producers, authorities and consumers in order to train all the parties in the aspects of food safety food quality. Wherever possible, we will use our influence in the decision-making processes and seek alliances with relevant partners (e.g. in the foodstuff area) and focus on consumer information and also activism in relation to safe food.
For most consumers the purchase of a home is one of the biggest single investments in life. It is therefore important that houses and flats, etc. can be bought and sold at the lowest possible risk and cost. Whether they are buying or selling, consumers may often have a need for professional assistance in the form of an estate agent/lawyer, appraiser or bank and insurance company. This can entail higher transaction costs. It will also be important to share the risk of defects and faults in the premises with the professionals who have provided assistance during the sale, and not simply between the seller and the buyer.
Not all consumers can afford to purchase their own accommodation, and some do not give it priority. The Consumer Council will work to establish arrangements, by way of the State housing authority fund, that will enable more people to own their own house.
Moreover, it is important to work towards providing a well-functioning rental market. Public and subsidized housing will continue to be important elements in meeting housing demands, while conditions must be created for private investments in building more rental accommodation managed by professional landlords. Information both for owners and tenants will be significant in expanding the knowledge of existing rules, while work has to be carried out in order to give tenants increased participation and security in their particular housing situation.
The public sector is facing great challenges, among other things as a result of the new and increasing tasks that they have to take on as well as the demands for the efficient exploitation of resources. The answer to the challenges can be found in initiatives such as deregulation and compulsory competitions for tenders. A common trait of such initiatives is that – on the assumption that this is more cost-effective but does not reduce the quality of the services – the market is allowed to become the control mechanism.
The basic consumer demands will therefore remain the same whether the service is supplied by the public authorities or by a private enterprise. These demands might relate to price, quality, contract terms, availability, freedom of choice, information and the possibilities of lodging complaints. Today, consumers do not have any rights of this nature in relation to public services. For the Consumer Council, the principle of the equal supply of public services to all parts of the country will continue to be very important.
The extensive use of contractual and service standards will in the future make strong demands for consumer participation in the standardization work both nationally and internationally. In a development where contractual standards replace legislation, it will be important to maintain or even improve the standards of protection afforded to consumers. Service standards will be of great importance for the contents of, for example, the public services that are offered consumers in a market that has been opened up to competition.
Product standards will be increasingly harmonized, partly in order to promote international trade and partly in order to safeguard demands on health, the environment and consumer safety. This development will require control and supervision of the market in the individual countries.
The reasons why people run into problems with debts are many and varied. Financing private consumption by credit cards or other consumer loans, selling a house or flat at a deficit when living arrangements break down or loss of income because of unemployment or illness are all typical causes. New households represent a special risk group because they generally have bigger debts than other groups and are therefore more vulnerable to changes in interest rates.
The most important challenges for consumer policy in this field are to create stability and predictability and to work against rapid changes in the framework financial conditions of the households in question.
On the other hand, large groups of consumers will obtain increased spending power, and the question of price will become secondary in relation to quality and brand in particular. We will face a development where more and more people will find their identity as consumers of goods and services and will demand brand and make in preference to price and quality. The business world will meet this development with an increased focus on the building of brand names. For the Consumer Council, the testing of goods and services and the provision of information to consumers about these products will be of continued importance.
Consumers today are having to come to terms with a more complex, sometimes even incomprehensible society, a wide range of goods and services, rapid technological developments, altered market conditions, increased buying pressure, extensive rights and rules and the desire to consume in a way that is ethically and environmentally correct. It will therefore be important for schools to give children and young people the ballast that is necessary to cope with everyday life as a consumer and with the increased pressure from commercialization and materialism. What’s more, it will be important to educate the adult population more generally in crucial consumer rights.
The Consumer Council will adapt its information activities in order to strengthen and help consumers.
Consumers do not constitute a single unified group, but rather a number of different target groups, and the Consumer Council must orient its information activities in line with this. We therefore have to use different channels for different messages and target groups.
Information will also be one of the central instruments of consumer policy in the future, and we have to face up to great challenges in the time that lies ahead. Both the information that we give and the channels through which we provide it will be subject to significant changes in step with the development of society, ever closer markets and the continuous advances made by information technology.
Thanks to all the enquiries from consumers, the tests that are carried out and the feedback we receive, the Consumer Council has a unique basis for providing high quality information. All the information we give must be easily accessible and adapted to the different target groups.
Independent and unbiassed consumer information often encounters strong competition from advertising, both in scope and visibility. In this kind of information market, public information for consumers becomes increasingly exposed to competition. We can see this competition already. It places new demands on the strategy and priorities that are given to the Consumer Council’s information activities.
In the future, media will to an even larger extent set the agenda for social debate and be an arena for the discussion of consumer policy. It is important for the Consumer Council to show a clear profile in this opinion market. In line with this we will continue to publish our Consumer Report and information on rights while at the same time expanding our focus on information provided via the Internet.
It will be of importance for the Consumer Council that the information activities in the the future also represent the main elements of the public consumer work and that they continue to be an important instrument of consumer policy.
In line with the vision of the Ministry of Labour and Government Administration the Consumer Council will become a 24-hour consumer service. As part of this we will introduce a new consumer portal where consumers will be able at any time to:
The creation and set-up of the portal will be based on users’ needs. It will provide up-to-date, reliable, simple and straightforward as well as topical information on the subjects that consumers are interested in, either by offering direct information or by providing links to other relevant sources. The Consumer Council’s net portal will become the natural destination for those who have questions of consumer policy. The portal will organize the information in such a way that the information needs of the different target groups are fulfilled.
IV. LEGISLATION AND PROCEDURES FOR SOLVING DISPUTES
AS INSTRUMENTS OF CONSUMER POLICY
Another challenge in the future will be not to let the local consumer offices be reduced to simple complaint and legal aid offices. A local media policy will also be important. This development calls for clear priorities to be set and strategic choices made. One element in this kind of strategy is to give a lower priority to cases involving small disputed amounts and cases between individual consumers.
Another remedy would be to build up a more standardized system for handling complaints. This would also make a positive contribution to the the goal of having more fundamentally significant cases tried before the courts.
Concerning the counselling work of the offices, the focus should not be placed exclusively on consumers’ rights. It should also be borne in mind that certain obligations are imposed on the consumer, whom we can then refer to as the “responsible consumer”.
The local offices will also be responsible in future for the contact with the individual consumer, and it will be important to systematize and make use of the multitude of information in the consumer policy work, both locally and centrally
It is – and will continue to be – the responsibility of the business sector to sort out their own cases involving complaints about goods and services. The boards of complaint for each branch of industry will still play an important role when it comes to solving disputes in consumer cases. The Consumer Council’s work with these boards will continue to be of importance for its consumer policy work, both because it provides useful experience in practical consumer issues, and because it makes it possible to influence developments in the legal field over time. The Consumer Council will also in future establish boards of complaint based on co-operation with various sectors.
Regarding the Consumer Disputes Commission, it will be necessary to reorganize the executive work so that more cases of essential significance can be solved in the Commission. The Consumer Council will therefore work towards the introduction of a limit to the amount involved in disputes that can be brought before the Consumer Disputes Commission, and also so that the Commission can refuse cases involving disputes between two consumers.
Very few of the typical consumer cases actually make it to the ordinary law courts. This is mainly because the disputes often involve small amounts in relation to the risk of accruing legal costs. The Consumer Council will therefore work towards the establishment of better legal aid arrangements for the ordinary consumer. Arrangements for solving disputes out of court will also play an important role in the future.
In order to have fundamental questions clarified, however, it will be necessary to take a number of cases to the ordinary courts. For this to be possible, there are two instruments that are important. One of them is government funding for lawsuits. The Consumer Council will therefore continue to work so that fundamentally important individual cases are brought before the courts with a guarantee that the public authorities settle the consumer’s legal costs. The other important tool is continued work to introduce group actions under Norwegian law. Bringing fundamental consumer lawsuits before the courts will probably become one of the most important instruments of consumer policy in the future.
In the forthcoming period, the Consumer Council will strengthen its competence within general consumer policy, which is mainly based on the specialist areas of social science, economics, law and the procurement and distribution of information.
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