INTRODUCTION

For the development of consumer law, the United nation by adopting United nation
guidelines for consumer production in 1985 stablished milestone best publishing international
consumer law principles for the first time. Right after that because of the rise of digital era
there have been some dramatic changes that has been experienced in the landscape an ever-
rising global challenges are being faced by these consumers in sector related to finance. In
order to show these changes in 2015 some new Provisions have been added by revising the
guidelines of 1999 that includes recommendations on e-commerce financial protection and
good business practices. These guidelines are not binding on the states hence they are
considered as soft laws. The issue that arises here is that in order to promote consumer law
how effective these guidelines can be at National and global levels.

While on one hand a different kind of role with a broad approach for consumer protection
has been played by United Nations. The legal powers and resources that are required in order
to fully implement these guidelines are most of the times lacking. Therefore, this article
monitors the development of consumer protection law at international level, by managing key
players and legal landscape of the field.

Therefore, the current paper resources to fully implement its guidelines. It analyses the role of
United Nation in consumer protection area. Furthermore, this article first analyses the current
international framework that is emerging in the concerned area. It then examines the essential
role of United nation in consumer protection promotions which focuses on the core aspects of
the guidelines that is e commerce, good business, redress, institutional machinery and
cooperation.

DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER LAW

In the last few decades there has been an increase in the involvement of international bodies
in the consumer protection development who are motivated by changing economy and
movements of consumer. National and regional system has been affected by high-level
principles, best practices and recommendations adopted by these organisations by applying
soft law approach1.

1
Howells et al. 2018, pp. 1–15
In this development many factors have played an important role. Firstly, new technologies
and trade barriers reductions helping in increasing transaction on cross-border basis 2. On one
hand this has turn out to be a benefit for the consumers but at the same time it has resulted in
problems in implementing cross border rights for consumers. Hence, a national law is applied
that can provide a limited remedy. Secondly, in the development of standards the
international organisations have been more active now, by trying to fill in the loopholes and
gaps in national consumer protection law3. In this regard a major role has been played by
United Nation by implementing its guidelines and hence promoting it at ground level. In
doing so UN has came out as the frontline promoter of consumer protection which lacks a
protective framework.4 OCED after looking at the guidelines of UN have framed their own
guidelines which includes e-commerce, dispute resolution and sustainable consumption.

It is progressing in a wide and pluralistic landscape in which though the guidelines, consumer
protection standards and best practices have expressed strong vibes in favour of co-ordination
and harmonisation. Today there are many organisations and agencies that have came forward
in order to deal with consumer protection but most of them deal with a particular aspect of it
instead of dealing with it completely for example, financial services or health protection.

UN GUIDELINES FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION

In 1985, a very vital contribution was made with the adoption of UN Guidelines for
international consumer protection law. Before this, along with Consumer international
addition of international instrument has been argued by many consumer groups in which they
suggested a code for consumer protection5. In an answer to such an initiative of global nature,
the secretary of UN Economic and Social Council was delegated with task to develop
guidelines for developing countries keeping in mind their specific requirements. After a
rigorous discussion the guidelines were adopted in order to provide a broad and international
consumer protection framework for the first time. A larger range of area of consumer
protection is covered under it which includes safety and health, consumer information and
education, economic interest promotion, and effective redress resulting in becoming a core
point of reference for member states.

2
Wei 2017, pp. 3–22
3
Durovic and Micklitz 2017, p. 2
4

5
7
In 1999, the guidelines were expanded during the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil because many
civil society groups inspired partly by successful advocacy and introduced a new rule on
sustainable consumption. A basic framework was included for sustainable consumption by
the revised version at the national level so that agencies of government could be applied to
assimilate existing provision on this matter.

Again, in the year 2015, digital era and global economy witnessed some major changes. New
sections were introduced on financial services, electronic commerce, national consumer
protection policies and good business practices. In addition to this the sections on
international cooperation and consumer redress broadened to deal with challenges related to
dispute resolution and recent enforcement, while specific areas sections recently included
tiuris, public utilities and energy. Lastly, in order to monitor periodical implementation of
guidelines it established an institutional mechanism.

Good Business Practices

An important novelty of the 2015 Guidelines is that they include a section on good business
practices, requiring that companies take direct responsibility for consumer protection. This
represents a general shift from previous versions, which focused on national governments as
promoters for consumer protection. Under the new framework the UNGCP aim to establish
“benchmarks for good practices” to encourage “high levels of ethical conduct” in companies
that produce or distribute consumer goods or services (Section IV, Guideline 1c).

This approach follows a broader trend that became evident during the last decade, and which
inclined towards co-regulation and self-regulation methods for businesses (UNCTAD
Manual 2017). Several international organizations have become particularly active in this
regard, such as the ISO with the development of the Guidance on Social Responsibility (ISO
26000 2010) and the OECD, which issued the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
Recommendations for Responsible Business Conduct (OECD 2011).

In line with these recommendations, the UN Guidelines cover a large number of business
practices, ranging from the fair and equitable treatment of consumers to disclosure and
transparency; from education and raising awareness to protection of privacy and dispute
resolution. Companies are expected to “deal fairly and honestly with consumers at all stages
of their relationship,” and “should avoid practices that harm consumers” (Section IV a). In
particular, they should abstain from “illegal, unethical, discriminatory or deceptive practices,
such as abusive marketing tactics,” which may deceive or expose consumers to unnecessary
risks (Section IV b). In addition, the Guidelines require firms to comply with strict standards
of disclosure and transparency as they should “provide complete, accurate and not misleading
information regarding the goods and services, terms, conditions, applicable fees and final
costs to enable consumers to make informed decisions” (Section IV c). Companies are
expected to go even further by helping consumers acquire sufficient skills and knowledge to
understand risks and make decisions informed by competent advice and support (Section IV
d). They should also protect the privacy of consumers and offer complaints handling
mechanisms to resolve disputes expediently (Section IV e and f). At the same time, Member
States are expected to actively promote these practices at the national level by adopting
consumer policies that encourage responsible corporate behaviour while promoting the
relevant education of both business and consumers (Guidelines A (a) and (i)).

The new focus on good business practices is a welcome addition to the previous UN
Guidelines and a significant step towards self-regulation as a means to improve consumer
protection (Pearson 2017, pp. 39–50). Self-regulation can play an essential role in consumer
law as an instrument to support existing legislation and as a mechanism to set standards for
contracts (Cafaggi 2007).

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
In the last few decades with various benefits being derived by the consumers in terms of
convenience and choices the e-commerce has grown significantly. Consumers at the same
time have to face many problems such as online payment security, misleading advertisement
data protection, dispute resolution and unfair terms6. A new section got developed
particularly to e-commerce from the 2015 revised guidelines in order to deal with the recent
developments. As per the guideline number 63, “member states should have their focus on
enhancing confidence of consumer in electronic commerce by constant development of
effective and transparent policies on consumer protection, by ensuring protection level which
is not less than that adopted by other forms of commerce”. Moreover 64 th guideline motivates
member states to make sure that consumers and businesses are aware about their duties and
rights in digital market place. Provisions on consumer privacy and data security are included
6
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by section V A oof policies on national consumer. Lastly, other international standards on
electronic commerce is referred specifically the OCED guidelines in terms of e-commerce for
consumer protection, that must be applied by every state that is member in collaboration with
all others and also taking into interpretation the particular national view.

The OCED guidelines of 1999 which was later on in 2016 got updated has an aim to ensure
like the UNGCP that equal protection provides benefit for those people who but from local
stores. Moreover, topics such as dispute resolution, privacy protection secure, means of
payment, transparent transactions confirmation, air business advertising, clear information for
consumers and redress mechanism. Most importantly these guidelines laid down a new
protective standards.

Financial Services

Over the past decades, there has been a proliferation of financial services that has broadened
the choice of consumers and made services more widely available. At the same time,
financial products have become more complex, making it difficult for consumers to assess
related risks such as over-indebtedness (Benöhr 2018; Ramsey 2015). This all became
painfully clear with the recent financial crisis which, however, had the positive effect of
focusing the attention of legislators across the globe on consumer protection. As a result, in
2011, the G20/OECD developed the High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer
ProtectionFootnote11 and in 2012, the World Bank established Good Practices to strengthen
financial consumer protection.Footnote12
In a similar trend, the UNGCP added a new section on financial services to encourage
legislative action and enforcement at the national level (Section V J). This covers many
aspects of financial services, including oversight entities, education strategies, fair treatment,
disclosure, responsible business conduct, and data protection. According to the Guidelines,
Member States are encouraged to establish consumer protection policies and financial
oversight bodies (Guideline 66 a and b). They should promote education to improve financial
literacy and also encourage disclosure; in particular, there is a recommendation to expand the
use of written policies to reveal and help identify any possible conflicts of interest with the
service provider (Guideline 66 d and e). Another aspect of particular importance since the
financial crisis is the focus on fair treatment of the consumer and on responsible business
conduct. Together, these have become the centre of attention for new reforms at the regional
level, supported by reference to a principle of financial inclusion. Accordingly, the UNGCP
encourage financial service providers to apply responsible lending practices and ensure that
sales are suited to the means and needs of consumers (Guideline 66 f). The Guidelines also
suggest that Member State take action to integrate and strengthen consumer policies with
regard to financial inclusion in order to avoid the exclusion of vulnerable individuals
(Guideline 67). Finally, providers have to ensure adequate data protection for financial
service users to avoid potential abuses and fraud, and enhance consumer trust in the digital
economy (Guideline 66 g).

Dispute Resolution and Redress

The 2015 UNGCP expanded the section on consumer redress to follow recent innovations in
dispute resolution systems and inspired by a general increase in mass actions and cross-
border cases (Section V F). The current version is more detailed than the previous one, and
now mentions alternative, cross-border, and collective dispute resolution mechanisms.
According to the Guidelines “Member States should encourage the development of fair,
effective, transparent and impartial mechanisms to address consumer complaints through
administrative, judicial and alternative dispute resolution, including for cross-border cases”
(Guideline 37). In addition, these mechanisms have to be expeditious, cheap and accessible,
and should be available for disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers. Furthermore,
companies should play a major role in resolving consumer disputes by offering voluntary
advisory services and complaint procedures that should be cheap, transparent, and fair. These
can be measures to encourage in-house dispute resolution, avoiding escalation to an external
mediator or, even more expensive, the court process (Guideline 38).

Another significant novelty of the revised Guidelines is that Member States should provide
for collective redress procedures that have to comply with certain standards. They have to be
“expeditious, transparent, fair, inexpensive and accessible to both consumers and businesses,
including those pertaining to over-indebtedness and bankruptcy cases” (Guideline 40).
Finally, Guideline 41 recommends that consumers are made aware of the different options in
terms of dispute resolution mechanisms and procedures if no amicable solution is found.

The revised UNGCP therefore reflect a general shift from a focus on “traditional”

mechanisms of redress, towards a broader access to justice approach, which aims to provide
consumers with a wider choice between different dispute resolutions and redress options
(Benöhr 2013; Cappelletti 1993; UNCTAD Manual 2017, 83–88). In particular, the quality
requirements for collective redress and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms set by the
new UNGCP constitute an important step in facilitating access to justice.

International Cooperation

The UNGCP Section VI on international cooperation was significantly revised in 2015

spawning a number of new Guidelines. The objective was to promote stronger cooperation
between the different national agencies, which is essential because currently, no international
court exists to deal with cross-border consumer disputes (Pearson 2017, pp. 39–50).

According to Guideline 79, Member States should develop mechanisms for the exchange of
information on national consumer protection policies and promote cooperation in the
implementation of relevant policies. They should also cooperate “to improve the conditions
under which essential goods are offered to consumers, giving due regard to both price and
quality.” This could be achieved through the exchange of information on procurement
options, or the joint procurement of essential goods. Although measures are not compulsory,
Member States are encouraged to develop information links regarding banned or severely
restricted products and should try to ensure homogeneity in product quality to protect
consumers (Guideline 81).

A special area of cooperation is that of enforcement and suppression of illicit behaviour.

First, according to Guideline 82, Member States should “cooperate in combating fraudulent
and deceptive cross-border commercial practices” and their agencies should develop a
framework for this purpose. Several Guidelines then cover the cooperation between
enforcement agencies to deal with investigations and enforcement tasks, avoid interference
with the work of other agencies, and resolve disagreements that may arise.

Furthermore, a network of enforcement agencies is envisaged, with each country being

encouraged to designate a relevant enforcement agency to become a contact point and
facilitate cooperation (Guidelines 83–85 and 87). To achieve this, Member States “should
provide their consumer protection enforcement agencies with the authority to investigate,
pursue, obtain and, where appropriate, share relevant information and evidence, particularly
on matters relating to cross-border fraudulent and deceptive commercial practices affecting
consumers” (Guideline 88). Finally, Guideline 89 asks Member States to strengthen
cooperation between courts and agencies by means of bilateral and multilateral arrangements,
with the objective of facilitating the cross-border recovery of foreign assets and the
enforcement of decisions. Here again, the Guidelines make reference to other, existing
standards protecting consumers from fraudulent cross-border practices, such as the OECD
Guidelines for Protecting Consumers from Fraudulent and Deceptive Commercial Practices.
A last group of “cooperation” Guidelines encourages Member States to work together to
promote capacity building in the field of sustainable consumption, and to facilitate
cooperation between consumer groups by means of education and information programmes
(Guidelines 91–93).

IMPACT OF THE GUIDELINES

In spite of being a soft law these guidelines have a very noticeable impact over the national
and global consumer protection in these of the following four ways:
Firstly, as it is mentioned that the development of regional and national consumer is
influenced by the guidelines on developing and transitioning countries. UNGCP helped the
countries particularly those that were evaluating and strengthening their regime or even
important in establishing them where they are missing completely.

Secondly, consensus being adopted, a moral force and sensitivity to consumer issues have
been created by the guidelines, to promote further reform it provided with a useful basis of
consumer organisations7. For instance, consumer international, has usually used the
guidelines by referring them in order to inspire and promote development of consumer
protection law at national level8.

Thirdly, other international and regional consumer rules for protection got inspired by the
United Nation guidelines. For instance, the consumer policy committee has been established
by OCED which offers a forum for discussion among Member States and drafts consumer
protection guidelines.

7
Harland 1997
8
23
Fourthly, the development of cross-border cooperation has been influenced by UNGCP at
regional level. For instance, in 2009 the adoption of ASEAN committee in consumer
protection cooperation mentioned it clearly that UNGCP is a point of reference in order to
develop a common approach for consumer protection.

CONCLUSION

An international framework was provided by UNGCP for protection of consumer that

includes minimum standards of consumer and cooperation provisions for member states.
After the revision of guidelines in 2015, more areas related to consumer protection got
covered by it and also defined the in charge institutional machinery of implementation of
guidelines and promotion of cooperation. A clear shift in focus can also be seen from new
UNGCP. Earlier they focussed on members states but now they take discourse of corporate
responsibility, encouraging best practices and companies. In addition to this, seemingly the
guidelines are converging more towards broader and inclusive model of consumer protection
as new provision has an aim to deal with essential utilities of consumer and provide
protection to vulnerable customer.

The UNGCP in total have great potential and have been upgraded from the previous version
in order to further improve consumer protection at both national and international level. As
they aim to give standard which covered aspects of consumer protection which is most
relevant, and at the same time have proved to be a point of reference for both developed as
well as developing countries. Only the restrictive areas of consumer protection is being
covered by them whereas other international organisations have become in this space equally
active by covering only narrow region or by stopping before defining a complete agenda.
Guidelines being accepted with consensus, have a non- negligible effect and at the same time
carry a strong moral force at the regional and member state level. UN being an active
promoter of capacity builder and inter-governmental cooperation has been amplified and
supported by its contribution. As an outcome, consumer protection has attained attention
internationally as an area of policy and law which is required to be globally addressed,
instead of purely regulated at the national level.

In spite of being so impactful, the Guidelines due to limitation with regard to enforcement
and limitation remains a soft law. This results in the rise of a question that in order to further
support the international consumer protect an increased institutional innovation and a more
binding legal mechanism could help or not. The current paper tried to come up with certain
ways to bring change and improvement in the same direction. For now, in order to recognise
consumer law the UNGCP is regarded as a major step towards international area, and an
inspiring change by force. Though it is the matter of time that will tell whether or not the
guidelines being a soft law will help the institutions and member states to resolve the
practical challenges of customer globally.

Notes

1. 1.

UNCTAD in particular has managed a wide range of capacity building programmes to

help governments develop consumer protection systems.

2. 2.

These developments reflect an emerging global consensus that there is a need for
stronger financial consumer protection, particularly in the credit market.

3. 3.

http://www.fao.org/food/food-safety-quality/empres-food-safety/en/ (accessed in
2019).

4. 4.

http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/en/ (accessed in 2019).

5. 5.

https://www.iso.org/iso-and-consumers.html (accessed in 2019).

6. 6.

http://www.finconet.org/ (accessed in 2019).

7. 7.
 See the historic overview by
UNCTAD: https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DITC/CompetitionLaw/UN-Guidelines-on-
Consumer-Protection.aspx (accessed in 2019).

8. 8.

For more information see: https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DITC/CompetitionLaw/UN-

Guidelines-on-Consumer-Protection.aspx (accessed in 2019).

9. 9.

Brazil was inspired by the Guidelines when developing its consumer protection code
of 1990.

10. 10.

https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1724 (accessed in
2019).

11. 11.

https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-markets/48892010.pdf (accessed in 2019).

12. 12.

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28996 (accessed in 2019).

13. 13.

The EU–Chile Association Agreement includes a free trade agreement that entered
into force in February 2003. For more information,
see: https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/chile/; for the
Chile-Peru Agreement see: https://www.sernac.cl/portal/604/w3-article-
1100.html (accessed in 2019).

14. 14.

See https://unctadcompal.org/ and https://unctadmena.org/activities/ (accessed in
2019).
15. 15.

http://portal.oas.org/en/sla/cshn/default.asp (accessed in 2019).

16. 16.

https://asean.org/archive/the-asean-committee-on-consumer-protection-accp/ (accesse
d in 2019).

17. 17.

https://www.icpen.org/protecting-consumers-worldwide.

18. 18.

https://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/scoreboard/performance_by_governance_tool/eu
ropean_consumer_centre_network/index_en.htm (accessed in 2019).

19. 19.

For example for the first meeting of the IGE

see https://unctad.org/en/Pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=1060 (accessed in
2019).

20. 20.

In Brazil, the Federal Constitution (1988) mentioned the creation of a Consumer

Protection Code, which was adopted in 1990.

21. 21.

See the Implementation report on the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer

Protection (1985–2013), UNCTAD Secretariat 2013).

22. 22.

According to UNCTAD’s implementation report, only Salvador, Mexico, and the

United States have provided a mandate to their consumer authorities to promote
 sustainable consumption, whereas in most other countries, this area is covered by their
environmental protection ministries, 2013, pp. 13 and 14 cover this topic.

23. 23.

See: www.consumersinternational.org (accessed in 2019).

24. 24.

www2.unwto.org (accessed in 2019).
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Cases

European Union
1. Kušionová v SMART Capital (C-34/13) EU:C:2014:2189

Legislation

European Union
1. Commission Recommendation on common principles for injunctive and
compensatory collective redress mechanisms in the Member States concerning
violations of rights granted under Union Law (2013, OJ L 201, 26 July 2013, pp. 60–
65).
2. Directive on Consumer ADR, Directive 2013/11/EU on alternative dispute resolution
for consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive
2009/22/EC, OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, pp. 63–79.
3. Proposal for a Directive on representative actions for the protection of the collective
interests of consumers (2018), repealing Directive 2009/22/EC, COM/2018/0184 final
- 2018/089 (COD).
4. European Commission (2018). On the implementation of the Commission
Recommendation of 11 June 2013 on common principles for injunctive and
compensatory collective redress mechanisms in the Member States concerning
violations of rights granted under Union law (2013/396/EU, COM(2018), 25 January
2018). Brussels: European Commission.