Global Markets Need a Global Consumer Voice
This week Consumers International and a delegation of Members from across Brazil, Fiji, Germany and Indonesia will participate in the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Consumer Protection Law and Policy, 9th session, hosted by UNCTAD. This sits as one of several international moments in our annual calendar where we can bring consumer insights, evidence and innovation into discussions. These meetings matter because global systems increasingly shape national consumer outcomes. Below we explain how.
A parent buying a toy online should not have to wonder whether it meets basic safety standards.
A consumer should be able to switch digital services without being locked into interconnected products.
And when an unsafe product is recalled, it should not continue appearing for sale online.
These may seem like ordinary issues we face as consumers. Yet international standards, rules of online platforms, digital infrastructure and multilateral policy all play a growing role in determining how markets can work for consumers.
That is why Consumers International collaborates with a range of multilateral partners, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where we inform discussions on competition policy, digital markets and consumer product safety.
Our contributions demonstrate how consumer organisations around the world can work together to shape the systems that underpin market growth, consumer protection, and fair business practices.
Turning consumer experience into global influence
Consumer organisations are often the first to identify emerging challenges.
They hear directly from consumers, investigate complaints, test products and advocate for practical solutions. Their work provides essential evidence about how markets are working – and where they are failing.
As the global membership organisation for consumer groups, Consumers International builds on that expertise. We identify common challenges, connect evidence from different regions, build bridges between stakeholders and bring the top priorities and future trends into places that shape national policy and global markets.
Our recent contribution to international dialogue has been drawn from research, expertise and practical experience from Members across our network, including organisations such as the Consumers Council of Canada, CADEF (Nigeria) Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Denmark), Hong Kong Consumer Council, Which? (UK), IDEC (Brazil) and many others.
Together, our input provides a global picture of how consumers are experiencing change, alongside practical ideas for how policymakers, regulators and businesses can respond.
Shaping the future of digital markets
Digital markets have transformed consumer choice and created extraordinary opportunities for innovation. They have also shifted units of production and power in ways that policymakers around the world are working to address.
How can markets remain innovative and competitive while ensuring consumers retain meaningful choice, control and protection?
This is the challenge currently on the agenda at the OECD and UNCTAD.
Consumers International and its Members have urged policymakers to strengthen the tools already available to meet this moment. Our recommendations have included promoting interoperability and data portability, addressing barriers created by digital gatekeepers, improving oversight of app ecosystems, and recognising the increasingly close relationship between competition policy and consumer protection.
Building safer markets for consumers
Product safety presents a different challenge, but one that is equally global.
A product purchased online may be sold by a trader in one country, shipped from another and delivered to a consumer thousands of miles away. Connected products and AI-enabled technologies are creating new opportunities, but also new risks that existing approaches were not designed to address.
Consumers International's contribution to UNCTAD's forthcoming Handbook on Consumer Product Safety focused on helping policymakers and regulators respond to this changing landscape.
Recommendations from our Members include stronger accountability for online marketplaces, more effective recall processes, better traceability systems and greater cooperation between authorities across borders.
Building momentum for change
International change does not come from a single organisation or intervention. It is a process built on evidence, collaboration across sectors with different perspectives and experiences, and persistence.
Product safety provides a valuable example.
In 2025, UNCTAD adopted the first UN Principles on Consumer Product Safety – an important milestone for consumers, governments and regulators seeking to improve safety in increasingly global and digital markets. The Principles reflected years of collaboration across many organisations and institutions.
Consumers International and its Members were proud to contribute consumer evidence, expertise and advocacy throughout that process.
Now attention is turning from principles to implementation – from the vision (Principles) to the practical plan (the Handbook).Our contribution is one example of how that work continues.
This is the role Consumers International was created to play: helping connect national experience with international action so that consumer concerns become practical frameworks, stronger institutions and, ultimately, better outcomes for consumers.
Looking ahead
This week we join UNCTAD. Later in the year, we will continue this work at the OECD Global Forum on Consumer Policy.
And regardless of local actors taking part in international dialogue, global systems will continue to shape the decisions affecting our lives. Governments, regulators and businesses are increasingly looking beyond their own borders for comparative evidence, practical examples and trusted partners as they respond to rapidly evolving markets.
Consumers International exists to connect those worlds.
Sometimes our role is to build a path forward. Sometimes it is to call out or challenge existing practices. Sometimes it is to pioneer approaches to issues where consumer policy has not yet caught up with technological change. Because as markets become more interconnected, so too must the systems that protect and empower consumers.