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International
consumer protection
Luke Upchurch
Consumers International
Moscow, 5 April 2012
About Consumers International
• 220 member organisations in 115 countries
• Funded by membership fees and donors institutions
• Global , independent, not-for-profit
• Champion consumer rights globally and build consumer
right groups nationally
About Consumers International
• UN ‘General consultative status’
• Lead work at International Organization of Standardization (ISO)
• Partnerships with International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT),
European Consumers Bureau (BEUC), Financial Stability Board (FSB),
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Our growth
Helped develop consumer
movement in Central and Eastern
Europe in 1990s
Consumer advice centres and
mediation in Kazakhstan in 2005-7
and Azerbaijan, 2006-10
15 member organisations in the
Former Soviet Union
Our achievements
 G20 agreement on better financial consumer
protection
 World Health Organization guidelines on the
marketing of unhealthy food to children
 International standard on social responsibility
Our work
Consumer groups empowerment
• Expertise on developing consumer protection legislation
• Expertise on developing model consumer law
•Access to training workshops
•Access to other national organisations
•Access to international decision-making bodies
Our work
International advocacy - Consumers for fair financial services
Our members
Subscriber models:
Consumer Reports – 8 million
subscribers, 600,000 online
accounts
Which? – 870,000 online and
magazine subscribers
Our members
Consumer Reports campaign:
Lobbied successfully for a
strong Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau.
Forced Bank of America to
back down on consumer
charges.
Our members
Which? campaign:
‘The Big Switch’ 260,000
consumer campaign
Sign up online, Which?
negotiates better deal with
energy companies
Has gained support from UK
government and pushed
energy companies to act
“Consumers, by definition,
include us all. They are
the largest economic
group, affecting and
affected by almost every
public and private
economic decision….
And yet they are often
not heard.”
[email protected]
Our growth
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Members
Countries
Our members
• Staff: 1
• voluntary groups
• grass roots
• Staff: 1,000
• multi-million dollar organisations
• magazine subscription