Consumer organization


Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution.
Consumer Organizations may operate via protests, litigation, campaigning, or lobbying. They may engage in single-issue advocacy or they may set themselves up as more general consumer watchdogs, such as the Consumers' Association in the UK.
One common means of providing consumers useful information is the independent comparative survey or test of products or services, involving different manufacturers or companies.
Another arena where consumer organizations have operated is food safety. The needs for campaigning in this area are less easy to reconcile with their traditional methods, since the scientific, dietary or medical evidence is normally more complex than in other arenas, such as the electric safety of white goods. The current standards on mandatory labelling, in developed countries, have in part been shaped by past lobbying by consumer groups.
The aim of consumer organizations may be to establish and to attempt to enforce consumer rights. Effective work has also been done, however, simply by using the threat of bad publicity to keep companies' focus on the consumers' point of view.
Consumer organizations may attempt to serve consumer interests by relatively direct actions such as creating and/or disseminating market information, and prohibiting specific acts or practices, or by promoting competitive forces in the markets which directly or indirectly affect consumers.

History

Two precursor organizations to the modern consumer organization are standards organizations and consumers leagues. Both of these appeared in the United States around 1900.
Trade associations and professional societies began to establish standards organizations to reduce industry waste and increase productivity. Consumer leagues modeled themselves after trade unions in their attempts to improve the market with boycotts in the same way that trade unions sought to improve working conditions with strike action.

Consumer organizations by country

International consumer organizations

Australia

Aside from this general consumer organisation, the Netherlands is home to many categorical consumer organisations whose working terrain is limited to a certain part of the markets. Examples of categorical organisations include:
  • The Vereniging Eigen Huis
  • The Vereniging Consument & Geldzaken
  • The Woonbond
Finally, there is a business regulation agency, charged with competition oversight, sector-specific regulation of several sectors, and enforcement of consumer protection laws:
The Swiss Alliance of Consumer Organisations is the umbrella organisation of the three Swiss consumer organisations of German-speaking Switzerland, the Fédération romande des consommateurs of French-speaking Switzerland and the Associazione consumatrici e consumatori della Svizzera italiana.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Enterprise Act 2002 allows consumer bodies that have been approved by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to be designated as "super-complainants" to the Competition and Markets Authority. These super-complainants are intended to, "strengthen the voice of consumers," who are "unlikely to have access individually to the kind of information necessary to judge whether markets are failing for them." Eight have been designated :
By 1969 most capitalist countries with developed marketplaces hosted consumer organizations that published consumer magazines which reported the results of product testing. Internationally, the idea of consumer organizations spread from Consumers Union in the United States starting in 1956. The growth of interest in product testing journalism might be explained by increased consumption of mass-marketed products in and before that period. That increased international consumption itself was an effect of the aftermath of World War II.
Year magazine startedMagazineCountryPublisherYear publisher founded1969 sales1975 sales
1936Consumer ReportsUSAConsumers Union19361,800,0002,300,000
1953ConsumentengidsNetherlandsConsumentenbond1953256,000470,000
1953Forbruker RapportenNorwayForbrukerradet 1953169,000235,000
1957Which?UKConsumers Association1956600,000700,000
1957Rad och RonSwedenStatens Institut for Konsumenfragor 1957104,718n.a.
1959Test-AchatsBelgiumAssociation des Consommateurs / Verbruikersunie 1957102,235240,000
1959ChoiceAustraliaAustralian Consumers' Association195967,204120,000
1961Rad og ResultaterDenmarkStatens Husholdningsrad 193528,100n.a.
1961Que ChoisirFranceUnion Federale des Consommateurs 195115,00030,000
1961KonsumentAustriaVerein fur Konsumenteninformation 196025,000n.a.
1963Canadian ConsumerCanadaConsumers' Association of Canada194743,000n.a.
1964TaenkDenmarkDanske Husmodres Forbrugerrad 194748,000n.a.
1965Il ConsumatoreItalyUnione Nazionale Consumatori1965100,000n.a.
1966TestGermanyStiftung Warentest196468,000250,000
197050 Millions de ConsummateursFranceInstitut National de la Consommation19670300,000
2012Consumer VoicePakistanConsumer Voice Pakistan20120n.a

In the 25 years after World War II, there was a correlation between the number of people in a country who were purchasing cars and the popularity of consumer magazines. In some cases, an increase in other consumer purchases seemed to drive popularity of consumer magazines, but the correlation was closest for populations who made decisions about buying cars. The availability of consumer magazines comforted consumers when individuals in society suddenly became overwhelmed with marketplace decisions, and the popularity of magazines seemed to grow as more marketplace decisions became available.