E-commerce offers consumers many benefits including greater choice, competitive prices, and easy-to-use and secure payment options. However, the complexity of the digital marketplace also makes it more challenging to protect consumers from problems such as unfair online advertising, fake ratings and reviews, and inappropriate consumer data practices. Adopting a proactive approach to consumer protection online is essential to keep pace with technological changes.
Consumer policy
Consumers are the backbone of the global economy – their demand for goods and services accounts for 60% of GDP in most OECD countries. Consumer policy ensures informed choices, fair treatment, and safety, while encouraging healthy competition for businesses, spurring innovation and fostering sustainable economic growth. The OECD’s work on consumer policy helps countries design and implement effective, evidence-based policies to safeguard consumer rights, protect vulnerable consumers, and empower individuals with the right information and tools to make decisions in complex and transforming markets.
Key messages
Consumers can play a key role in the green transition through their demand for sustainable products. However, studies show that despite their best intentions, consumers face significant barriers in making sustainable purchasing decisions. These hurdles often arise from common behavioural biases, such as a preference for short-term cost savings over investing in longer-lasting products or opting for familiar items to mitigate perceived risks. Additionally, structural barriers like limited access to repair parts or services and a lack of clear, reliable information about product sustainability, further impede sustainable choices. Recognising these challenges and raising consumers’ awareness becomes a pivotal aspect of policy-driven action to promote a more sustainable marketplace.
OECD countries uphold some of the strongest product safety standards, but the borderless nature of e-commerce and technological advancements pose new challenges. Evidence shows that 9 in 10 banned or recalled products in OECD nations are available online, often from global suppliers. Products with artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual reality (VR) features raise new concerns regarding product safety and adverse mental health outcomes. Effective regulation is vital for protecting consumers, giving authorities the right tools to address risks, instill business confidence, and support fair and effective competition.
The OECD's Global Recall Portal enables authorities from over 60 OECD and partner countries, ensuring swift exchange of information and removal of hazardous products from the market.
Context
The consumer marketplace of the future
The OECD works with governments, observers, civil society and business representatives to develop a broad range of consumer policies. Today, in the midst of ongoing digital transformation, increasing globalisation and a growing need for more sustainable consumption, the OECD remains more active and relevant than ever, working to ensure that consumer policy is ready for the consumer marketplace of the future.
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Understanding consumer behaviour is key to effective policy design. Behavioural insights, rooted in psychology and social science research, explain how people actually make decisions.Learn more
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Online markets provide consumers with a plethora of benefits including a broader range of choices and increased convenience. However, they also introduce numerous consumer protection challenges and expose new vulnerabilities.Learn more
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Succinct, straightforward, and clear, jargon-free, messaging is required here: what are the (global) challenges and what is at stake (for OECD countries) with respect to this policy sub-issue? Keep in mind user perspective logic by signposting the multiple angles/sectors that can be brought to bear on the issue. 180-300 chars (3-6 lines) is ideal.Learn more
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Dark commercial patterns steer, deceive, coerce, or manipulate consumers into making decisions against their best interest.Learn more
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Unsafe products pose significant risks to individuals, leading to injuries, fatalities, and substantial economic burdens. Effective regulation is essential to ensure necessary protections, instill confidence in businesses, and foster fair competition.Learn more
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Consumers can play a critical role in reaching climate and sustainability goals. However, more needs to be done to support sustainable decision-making.Learn more