Enhancing cross-border enforcement of regulations on consumer protection was the main theme of a workshop held on April 24-25 in the Philippines on the margins of the 9 th ASEAN Committee on Consumer Protection (ACCP).

The event served as a platform for ASEAN countries to exchange information, deliberate on issues of common concern, challenges and share best practices on handling cross-border consumer complaints, e-commerce cases and developing law enforcement sweeps.

The participants, who consisted of consumer protection officials from ASEAN member states, shared experiences and the challenges in enforcing consumer protection laws in the ASEAN. Enhancing coordination among consumer protection agencies and the technical capacities and resources of the staff were among the identified challenges in the field.

The participants also recognized the importance of consumer education programmes and the usefulness of the ACCP website for consumers in the region to lodge claims and complaints.

The United States Federal Trade Commission (US FTC) presented an analysis of consumer complaints and cross-border cases, the usefulness of the cross-border consumer complaint databases which consolidates and assesses the trends of cross-border consumer complaints worldwide, as well as best practices in conducting sweeps or coordinated law enforcement 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