The unifying goal of consumer organizations is to support consumers and represent their interests. Within the EU member states, this goal is pursued and implemented through different organizational structures. The aim of the project was to draw conclusions for the future orientation of consumer protection in Austria by processing successful examples in the European environment.
On behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection, ConPolicy compiled an overview of the organization and performance of consumer protection tasks in selected European countries. The view on the European environment was supposed to serve as a benchmark for the Ministry to further develop the Austrian strategy in consumer protection. The project included a written review of the different consumer protection concepts in selected European countries as well as the conception, implementation and evaluation of a stakeholder workshop and a transfer workshop.
In order to realize the objective, the structure and tasks of selected consumer organizations were identified with the help of literature research and expert interviews. Representatives of these consumer organizations presented their content-related, methodological and institutional working methods at a stakeholder workshop and offered interest groups and politicians the opportunity to exchange views and ask questions. On this basis, a transfer workshop was held in order to draw concrete conclusions from the impressions gained for the possibilities for the future orientation of consumer protection work in Austria.
The preparation of successful examples from the European environment can be accessed here.
