World Consumer Rights Day: Towards a Future of Safe Products and Confident Consumers
This week, consumer advocates, international organisations, governments and businesses came together to mark World Consumer Rights Day, uniting behind a shared call for Safe Products, Confident Consumers.
Through this year’s campaign and dialogues, we highlighted the urgent need - and real opportunity - to strengthen product safety systems in an increasingly digital and interconnected marketplace, so consumers everywhere can trust the products they use every day.
THE REALITY OF PRODUCT SAFETY TODAY
Product safety has long been a cornerstone of consumer protection, but today’s systems are struggling to keep pace with rapid changes in how products are made, sold and consumed.
Global supply chains and the rise of online marketplaces mean products can move across multiple jurisdictions before reaching consumers - making oversight and enforcement more complex than ever.
Our 2026 global survey on product safety reflects this challenge:
- 85% say their product safety system works poorly or only partially
- 93% flag online marketplaces as a major safety risk
- 89% see counterfeits as a major or significant increase in risk.
Based on 55 responses across 45 countries and six regions of our Membership.
These findings reflect a widening gap between consumer expectations and reality. At its core, the issue is simple and deeply human.
A GLOBAL DIALOGUE WITH AND FOR CONSUMERS
Our Safe Products, Confident Consumers Dialogues brought together 20 global leaders across government, civil society and international organisations, alongside 200+ attendees from around the world.
During a special dialogue with ministers, consumer advocacy groups and international organisations, Helena Leurent, Director General of Consumers International, set out the urgency of strengthening global product safety systems.
Our dialogue, From Gaps to Guarantees: Building Safer Products for Consumers pointed to clear solutions and growing global alignment on what must change. Stronger laws and enforcement, better data, safer product design, and deeper international cooperation are central to the path forward.
- As Yasushi Masaki (OECD) noted, progress will require modernised laws, safety-by-design in business, and stronger cooperation - with tools and evidence already in place.
- Hon Kate Dearden (UK Government) highlighted that safeguarding consumers is a shared responsibility, with international collaboration more important than ever.
- Torine Creppy (Safe Kids Worldwide) emphasised the need for information to be more proactively shared to track bad actors and identify emerging risks.
- Consumers must also be better supported when things go wrong. As Isabelle Pérignon (European Commission) put it, they need to clearly understand risks and know what action to take.
In sessions convening the leaders of our Members on the Lived Experience in Product Safety speakers grounded interventions in the consumer experience and spanned all regions.
Representing thousands of consumers in their countries, they emphasised the extent of the issue practically – that certain online marketplaces have increased our availability of access to goods but there remains a large-scale distribution of products failing to meet basic standards. That consumers are aware of risks but are driven by low prices, promotions, and platform design - so responsibility cannot rest on them alone to make informed decisions. Across markets differing quality issues result – with counterfeit products flooding the market in some countries.
GLOBAL ACTION ON MARCH 15
Against the backdrop of our dialogues, Members and partners around the world mobilised to turn insight into action leading up to and during World Consumer Rights Day.
From large-scale public awareness and media outreach to grassroots community engagement, product testing, and policy advocacy, activities spanned every region - from Africa and Latin America to Europe, Asia-Pacific and beyond. In total, 106 Members joined in our call.
Campaigns addressed a wide range of risks, from unsafe everyday goods and children’s products to emerging challenges in e-commerce, while others focus on strengthening national regulations, empowering consumers with information, or supporting redress when harm occurs.
Together, they highlight both the global nature of product safety challenges and the national tailored action being led by consumer organisations worldwide.
ADECO (Cape Verde) holds a discussion at local schools on consumer rights and duties, and JACARIN (Japan) JACRIN (Japan) hosts a lecture examining the newly adopted United Nations principles on consumer product safety.
Global Endorsements
This year leaders form international organisations, governments and civil society released endorsement videos. These 12 addresses reinforced the need for shared commitment to advancing product safety worldwide.
Across the United Nations Trade & Development (UNCTAD), International Standards Organization, European Commission and governments including Argentina, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa, messages spoke to how safer products are directly linked to confidence in markets and economic stability, without which the marketplace is failing to fulfill its potential for opportunity and prosperity.
What's Next
This year’s World Consumer Rights Day has shown both the scale of the product safety challenge and the power of collective action to address it.
We are grateful to our Members, partners and speakers who contributed their expertise, insights and lived experiences to this global conversation – we will continue working with them to drive commitment and action for people in the marketplace.
Together, we can move closer to a future where safe products are the norm, and consumers everywhere can participate in the marketplace with confidence.