consumer advocacy

consumer advocacy, movement or policies aimed at regulating the products, services, methods, and standards of manufacturers, sellers, and advertisers in the interests of the buyer. Such regulation may be institutional, statutory, or embodied in a voluntary code accepted by a particular industry, or it may result more indirectly from the influence of consumer organizations.

Consumer protection organizations in one form or another are scattered throughout the world, from the industrial countries to developing countries. Governments often establish formal regulatory agencies to ensure consumer protection. For example, in the United States the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), established in 1914, is authorized to prevent deceptive practices in commerce and to regulate the package labeling of consumer products; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), established as the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration in the Agriculture Department in 1927, administers consumer protection of foods, cosmetics, and other substances; and the National Highway Traffic Administration, established in 1970, is concerned with all aspects of automobile safety. At least one government division or office dealing with consumer affairs has been set up in each of the 50 states. A leading individual consumer advocate during the mid-20th century was Ralph Nader, who criticized the safety engineering of U.S. automobiles in the book Unsafe at Any Speed (1965).

Consumers International (formerly the International Organization of Consumers Unions) is a worldwide association of consumer groups. Some members—especially in Asia—operate only in a single city, whereas others, such as the Consumers’ Association of Canada, are nationwide networks of organizations.

One of the best protections for consumers is the availability of information. The Internet has become an important forum for information and opinions on products, businesses, and services. Consumer Reports, long considered an unbiased and up-to-date source of reviews and information on a wide range of products and services, publishes the findings of Consumers Union, an independent nonprofit testing and information organization established in the United States in 1936.

Laws have long provided certain safeguards to buyers. Among these safeguards (exemplified in England’s Sale of Goods Act of 1893) is the one that states that whenever a buyer, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required, thus relying on the seller’s skill or judgment, there is an implied condition that the goods sold shall be reasonably fit for such a purpose.

Other early legislation dealt mainly with adulteration of food and drugs. This was true, for example, of the Adulteration of Food and Drugs Act of 1872 (England) and similar, cumulative measures of 1848, 1890, and 1906 in the United States. The scope of such acts has been enlarged from time to time to include, for example, goods such as electrical products and automobiles, which could endanger the safety of the consumer if certain standards are not met. The provisions of such legislation are necessarily complex and vary from country to country, as well as, in the United States, from state to state. Various nonstatutory controls, such as standards laid down by national-standards institutions, also interact with statutory controls. In the following survey both the statutory and nonstatutory aspects of this subject are considered together.

Of all industries, food and drugs are the most controlled by legislation. Other products in general are controlled by standards institutions, which lay down basic minimum standards for many different kinds of products. Legislative controls applying to food and drug manufacturers prohibit them from adding or removing anything from the product they sell that would make it injurious to health. Although this might appear to afford absolute protection for the consumer, manufacturers sometimes unwittingly add ingredients that are subsequently found to be harmful—e.g., cyclamates, which were used for some years as an artificial sweetener. The frequency of such occurrences will clearly depend on the rigour of the standards of the official testing agencies concerned and the stringency with which such standards are applied.

For nonfood products, legislation is less easily devised and far less easily enforced. Most countries, nevertheless, have developed minimum applicable standards. National-standards institutions were, in many instances, set up more for the benefit of manufacturers than for that of the ordinary, domestic consumer. In addition, government bodies were often formed to better control government purchasing. In the United States, for example, the General Services Administration laid down specifications and quality standards that had to be satisfied before the federal government would buy supplies. Other standards bodies, such as the British Standards Institute, started in 1901, were set up for the convenience of manufacturers so that one manufacturer’s goods could be used in conjunction with another’s, as in the standardization of electrical fittings.

By the 1950s, standards organizations had become far more aware of the needs of the ordinary consumer, but their legal status, for the most part, remained unaltered. Most recommendations are devised with the cooperation of industry, government departments, and consumers. The standards themselves are not usually legally enforceable but remain voluntary. They usually do not reflect the quality of the product as a whole but deal only with a specific aspect of it. The mark of a standards institution, for example, may well indicate that a hair dryer is sufficiently insulated against electrical shock hazards but not that it dries hair satisfactorily.

Although the standards institutions have assisted in raising the quality of many consumer products, their grip is weak. Most standards result from decisions of committees in which manufacturers usually have the final say. The recommended standard is thus more often a reflection of the industry’s conscience than of the standard that would be required to provide satisfaction for the consumer. The standards laid down by manufacturers for a product can be so low that the consumer benefits little, if at all. Further, almost all standards refer to the safety of a product and not to its efficiency; and, with only a few exceptions, the recommendations of standards agencies are voluntary. The decision whether to adopt the standard is up to the company that markets the product, and such a decision necessarily involves an assessment of possible costs and returns. It is unfortunate that, in many countries, the selling power of the standards symbol is less substantial than that of a good promotion campaign. Consumers, it would appear, are not sufficiently aware of the presence and significance of these symbols, perhaps because they tend to be little publicized by the manufacturers.

Apart from the formulation of standards, testing by various bodies occasionally results in the redesigning of certain products. Such testing has been most apparent in the automobile industry, in which cars have been recalled by their manufacturers so that alterations and improvements could be made.