The Consumer Council (CC) announced in a statement yesterday that Consumers International (CI) themed this year’s World Consumer Rights Day as “Fair Digital Finance”, calling for access to “safe and fair” financial online services for consumers internationally.
The World Consumer Rights Day takes place today.
The statement pointed out that Consumers International is “an independent and non-governmental organisation” that has over 200 member organisations in more than 100 countries and territories, with Macau’s Consumer Council having been a full member since 1997.
Consumers International noted in the statement that digital financial services have improved the consumer experience in various ways and research indicates that by 2024, digital banking consumers are expected to surpass 3.6 billion.
The statement added that despite creating opportunities for consumers, a number of consumer challenges do persist, such as hidden or inflated charges or fees, scams and frauds, data protection challenges, and the “risk of vulnerable consumers being left behind in a cashless society”.
The theme was defined by Consumers International in the statement as “products and services that are inclusive, safe, data protected and private”, emphasising that all consumers need to be offered access to manage their finances and need to be protected from scams, fraud, and phishing, as well as have their data safeguarded.
The statement added that Macau’s Consumer Council will continue its work to coincide with the measure and enhance consumers’ awareness “in protecting their own rights when using financial services”.
Moreover, the statement underlined that this year’s China Consumers’ Association’s (CCA) annual theme is “Jointly promote consumption fairness”, which aims for four achievements:
“Secured consumption fairness by strictly implementing laws and regulations; in-depth consumption fairness by actively guiding ‘Tech for Social Good’; large-scale consumption fairness by strengthening protection on groups of special needs; and sustainable consumption fairness by putting green consumption into practice”.
The statement noted that the CCA also needs all of the country’s “consumer protection organisations” to achieve the following objectives in line with the theme:
“Gather social powers, promote social consensus, and build the foundation of a society of consumption fairness; strengthen theory research, promote system improvement, and secure protection of rule of law of consumption fairness; highlight problem orientation, uphold the protection of consumer rights, and empower the scope of relief of consumption fairness; and enhance consumer education, reinforce promotion, and strengthen the force of supervision of consumption fairness”.
The statement said that the council will support the CCA’s advocacy and conduct various educational and promotional tasks to enable consumers to learn more about the importance of consumption fairness.
This image provided by the Consumer Council (CC) yesterday promotes today’s World Consumer Rights Day themed “Fair Digital Finance”.
