Enhancing cross-border enforcement of regulations on consumer protectionwas the main theme of a workshop held on April 24-25 in thePhilippines on the margins of the 9 th ASEAN Committee on ConsumerProtection (ACCP).
The event served as a platform for ASEANcountries to exchange information, deliberate on issues of commonconcern, challenges and share best practices on handling cross-borderconsumer complaints, e-commerce cases and developing law enforcementsweeps.
The participants, who consisted of consumer protectionofficials from ASEAN member states, shared experiences and thechallenges in enforcing consumer protection laws in the ASEAN. Enhancingcoordination among consumer protection agencies and the technicalcapacities and resources of the staff were among the identifiedchallenges in the field.
The participants also recognized theimportance of consumer education programmes and the usefulness of theACCP website for consumers in the region to lodge claims and complaints.
The United States Federal Trade Commission (US FTC) presented ananalysis of consumer complaints and cross-border cases, the usefulnessof the cross-border consumer complaint databases which consolidates andassesses the trends of cross-border consumer complaints worldwide, aswell as best practices in conducting sweeps or coordinated lawenforcement actions among multiple agencies to address consumer scams.
The workshop was supported by the ACCP, the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines (DTI) and US FTC.-VNA