Consumer vulnerability

Inadequate consumer protection
Unprotected consumers
Unwary customers

Nature

Consumers are vulnerable to practices such as: inaccurate use of weights and measures; use of dangerous additives and preservatives in foodstuffs; lack of control of insecticides, pesticides and drug pre-testing; unsafe products (for example, unsafe toys, tyres, television sets and inflammable carpeting); fraudulent and misleading advertising; meaningless product guarantees and warranties; inadequate servicing and complaint handling facilities; inadequate indication of product quality, characteristics and degree of safety; lack of impartial testing services to evaluate and publicize the performance of competing products; uncontested price increases. The range of 'products' consumers can be abused on are: private goods such as cooking stoves; environmental goods like air and water systems; public services such as health or defence; government services in law making; tax-gathering and administration; and moral 'goods', for example the principle of protecting workers' health.

Claim

Since the completion of the common market in 1968, the free movement of goods and services in the EEC/EU means that 340 million consumers can choose from the broadest range of goods and services available anywhere in the world. This does not necessarily mean that consumers have been well-protected, informed and organized. Oversupply in a highly competitive market means increasingly that protective measures have to be taken to ensure uniform standards. This has the unfortunate by-product of overreaching cultural norms, reducing consumer responsibility and encouraging vendor malpractice in unregulated situations.