Ongoing digitalization offers consumers great opportunities. At the same time, however, it also holds risks and it is important to prevent the digital divide of society. Furthermore, a high degree of consumer confidence is necessary to take advantage of the opportunities emerging from the digital economy. Against this background, the members of the G20 have repeatedly put the issue on their agenda. Along this line, the German G20 presidency organizes a congress focusing on this topic, the G20 Consumer Summit "Building a digital world consumers can trust".
The German Federation of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) has commissioned ConPolicy in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Lucia Reisch (Copenhagen Business School) to conduct a study on indicators for digital consumer protection and empowerment. The study is titled “Indicators of consumer protection and empowerment in the digital world“ and examines which indicators can be used to measure consumer friendliness of digital contexts.
The study identifies a total of 65 indicators grouped into the following eight dimensions:
- Access
- Economic interest
- Product safety and liability
- Privacy and data protection
- Information and transparency
- Education and awareness
- Dispute resolution and redress
- Governance and participation
These dimensions were derived from international reference documents, from expert interviews as well as from a consultation of the member organisations of Consumers International and tested in six G20 member states using representative surveys. The study was presented at the G20 Consumer Summit in Berlin on 15 March 2017 and is available here.
