European Consumer Day, March 16 th, Consumerism in 21st century can policymakers keep up with new trends?

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1 European Consumer Day, March 16 th, 2015 Consumerism in 21st century can policymakers keep up with new trends? Mrs. Zaiga Liepina, Deputy State Secretary, Ministry of Economics of Latvia Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I have been working with consumer protection issues for a long time now. Therefore it is my great pleasure to be here, amongst you, and celebrate the Consumers Day. All of us working in the consumer rights field, whether working in the policy setting, enforcement agencies, or consumer NGO s, have one, clear, shared interest: consumers. Latvia has always believed that the well-functioning Single Market for consumers is the heart of the EU economy. And I know we re not alone. Therefore, strengthening EU consumers trust in the Single Market is an essential goal to achieve. And this is no longer news to anyone in policy making, whether at European or national level. Since the adoption of the European Consumer Agenda in 2012 a number of activities to improve consumer participation and trust in the market have been successfully carried out.

2 We are now at an important historic moment of shaping the future consumer policy in the EU. With 500 million consumer trust and confidence at stake, this is an extremely responsible task. Therefore I am happy to see this topic being so widely discussed in different forums across the EU. To focus on the way ahead in the EU Consumer Policy, Latvian Presidency organises the European Consumer Protection Conference devoted to Future Priorities of Consumer Policy in Digital Era. The conference will take place in our beautiful capital - Riga - on 23 rd and 24 th of April. I truly hope that this discussion together with the conference in Riga can serve as a good input for the European Consumer Summit in June. With our daily lives going digital, the Single Market should become easier and more accessible. However, we all know - the Single Market still has room for improvement. Digital age just makes it more obvious. Not all consumers in the EU have equal access to goods and services, especially digital content. Consumers also still get discriminated in relation to prices. I am sure you have all heard about the price discrimination discovered by EU-wide sweep action in the car rental sector when booking service online. Unfortunately, it seems that signs of price discrimination are still present even after EU action. There are also other challenges that consumers face: protection of their data online; safe online environment; accessibility of true and reliable information on goods and services; effective cross-border consumer dispute selling mechanisms, and others.

3 Digitalisation worldwide has also made the supply chains of goods so complex it is a challenge to ensure the safety of consumer goods as well as to avoid counterfeit products. As we all know it is almost impossible for policy makers now-a-days to be ahead of the new trends. But we should at least be able to go step in step with them and be ready to react fast. Latvia sees two ways to stand up to the challenges of protecting consumers in 21 st century and making the Single Market work better. Firstly, clear and fit for digital age rules to protect consumer rights. Secondly, fostering the enforcement of consumer protection rules. So, my speech will touch upon these two themes. 1. The legislation needs to be developed in a way that it fits the digital age. The EU regulatory framework in general should be such as to enhance consumer s trust in the EU Digital Single Market. It should also enable consumers to purchase goods and services everywhere in the EU as easy as in their respective home country. This goal can only be achieved by ensuring clear and consistent common rules at the EU level that can be enforced in practice. EU is currently working on the simplification of existing and new legislation and reduction of burdens through the REFIT programme. As part of this process, the Council Conclusions on the Single Market Policy adopted during the Latvian Presidency call upon the Commission to examine how existing legislation can be made fit for the digital age.

4 The Council Conclusions also encourage the Commission to use the Digital Single Market Package to address relevant and important issues, amongst others including also: geographical discrimination in the provision of goods and services for consumers, ensuring online consumer protection, copyright rules appropriate for the digital age, adequate protection of personal data. 2. Enforcement of existing consumer protection rules is crucial Enforcement of consumer rights has already been identified as a key priority of the past consumer strategies. In the EU Consumer Agenda, enforcement has been recognised as a major challenge and is one of the four pillars for action up to I suppose we can all agree that without proper enforcement it does not really matter how good the consumer protection laws are. In reality they would not help consumers to enhance their daily lives. Therefore enforcement and proper implementation of consumer protection legislation should be the main priority of national governments across the EU. Strong enforcement systems can also help to deal with new trends in goods and services in our fast changing environment. Thus national and European policy makers could at least go in step with the market changes not lacking too far behind. So, what are the three rules of successful enforcement? 1) Political commitment is an essential starting point. It facilitates effective enforcement at national and the EU level. It raises consumer confidence.

5 And, as we know, confident consumers mean real economic growth. 2) Unless we have the availability of resources and appropriate powers of institutions, successful enforcement is simply not possible. We all faced budgetary cuts due to the financial crisis. In such circumstances, we learned that efficiency of enforcement is central to ensuring consumers don t suffer from budget cuts. But we also need to keep in mind that the Single Market is only as strong as its weakest part. 3) Effective cooperation between consumer protection institutions is an integral part of enforcement. Today, consumers have numerous options for shopping all around the world without even leaving their living rooms. Only by uniting our forces and effective cooperation can we prevent violation of consumer rights in cross-border shopping. Why do we need closer cross-border cooperation? Stronger rules on cooperation between Member States consumer protection institutions are necessary to protect consumers when shopping cross border. The CPC Regulation has been a good tool to safeguard consumers collective interests across the EU for the last 7 years. Today, the proportion of cross-border sales is growing. However, in parallel, we see that consumer protection institutions are struggling to deal with traders outside their jurisdiction - in other Member States or outside the EU.

6 Consumers should be able to rely on consumer protection institutions to deal with any business not compliant with EU legislation. Therefore, Latvia encourages the European Commission to be as ambitious as possible regarding the new CPC proposal. It has the potential to be a breaking point in facilitating enforcement of consumer protection rules. However, the question remains open on how to protect consumers in cross-border relations with companies from outside of EU jurisdiction. I am convinced that in this context, European consumers will strongly benefit from cooperation with international organisations that bring together consumer protection authorities. By joining efforts and combining expertise from all over the world, we can help consumers to feel safer in the global marketplace. Ladies and gentlemen, I mentioned at the start that Latvia has always believed that the well-functioning Single Market for consumers is the heart of the EU economy. Therefore, we have to stay committed, with sufficient political will to strengthen EU consumers trust in the Digital Single Market. Better enforcement and stronger cooperation are, and will continue to be, central priorities on the consumer agenda for our Presidency trio. Now I thank you for your attention and let me wish you a very fruitful conference today leading to many great ideas on how to make consumers lives better. And I am looking forward to continuing this discussion with you in April! Thank you!