Extended Warranties: Consumer and Manufacturer Perceptions

Extended warranties are becoming increasingly popular, both among consumers and manufacturers. In this study, consumer and manufacturer perceptions of why extended warranties are bought and sold are evaluated and compared. The results indicate that consumers seem to view extended warranties as a way of reducing perceived risk. Manufacturers reveal that they market extended warranties both to generate revenue and to provide service to customers. Marketing management and public policy implications are examined and research directions identified.     

E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend

Journal of Business Ethics - Given the rapid growth and emerging trend of e-commerce have changed consumer preferences to buy online, this study analyzes the current...     

Consumer Risk Response and Consumer Protection: An Economic Analysis of Seat Belt Usage

A utility analysis of decisions involving risk indicated that risk averse consumers would undertake a risk reduction strategy as long as the change in expected loss was equal to or greater than the costs of the strategy. Cost-benefit analysis of seat belt usage was conducted to test this hypothesis. The results indicated that drivers of all size classes would gain from using seat belts in the case of low user costs while the drivers of subcompacts and compacts would gain in the case of higher user costs. However, less than one-fifth of drivers wear seat belts. These results raise questions concerning the effectiveness of the informed buyer approach in areas of risk or uncertainty.     

An Analysis of Third Party Consumer Complaint Handling Mechanisms: The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of third party complaint handling mechanisms, based on data obtained from the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection. Specifically, the study focuses on the types of complaints processed by the Agency, the factors which affect the redress received by consumers and the length of investigation time.     

Consumer safety in Greece: An analysis of the Consumer Protection Act 1991

In September 1991 the Greek Consumer Protection Act No. 1961 was enacted. Chapter 2 of this Act establishes a legal framework for product safety. This framework has the dual aim of securing deregulation in the Greek market while maintaining effective consumer protection. This paper analyses the main features of this framework and demonstrates its inadequacies. It also investigates the extent to which these inadequacies could jeopardise an effective protection of consumers' interests. The paper concludes by emphasising that effective protection of consumers can only be achieved by supporting the general safety requirement with adequate accident-surveillance systems, mechanisms for investigation of risks, unambiguous risk-assessment criteria, creation of a comprehensive set of supporting standards that offer a high level of protection, effective control of the safety of products by the authorities, and real possibilities for consumer organisations to participate in the whole process.

---

Zusammenfassung Die Sicherheit des Verbrauchers in Griechenland: eine Analyse des Verbraucherschutzgesetzes von 1991 Im September 1991 trat das griechische Verbraucherschutzgesetz in Kraft. Kapitel 2 des Gesetzes führt einen rechtlichen Rahmen für die Sicherheit von Produkten ein. Dieser Rahmen verfolgt das Ziel der Deregulierung auf dem griechischen Markt bei zugleich wirksamem Verbraucherschutz. Der Beitrag analysiert die wesentlichen Aspekte dieses Rahmens und stellt seine Schwächen dar. Er prüft, inwieweit diese Schwächen einem wirksamen Verbraucherschutz entgegenstehen können, und hebt hervor, da\ wirksamer Verbraucherschutz nur durch Stärkung der allgemeinen Sicherheitsbestimmungen erreicht werden kann. Dafür sind erforderlich ein angemessenes Unfallüberwachungssystem, Regelungen für die Untersuchung von Risiken, eindeutige Kriterien für die Bewertung von Risiken, die Entwicklung umfassender Kriterien zur Gewährleistung eines hohen Schutzniveaus, die wirksame Kontrolle der Produktsicherheit durch die Behörden, sowie für die Verbraucherorganisationen die faktische Mitwirkungsmöglichkeit an der gesamten Entwicklung.

---

---

George Argiros, a member of the Athens Bar Association, is at present researching in the field of EC Law and Consumer Protection at the University of Leicester, Faculty of Law, Leicester LE1 7RH, U.K.     

An Assessment of Consumer Protection and Consumer Empowerment in Costa Rica

The present exploratory study aims to describe and assess Costa Rica’s regime for protecting and empowering consumers. As the general framework, this study used research conducted in the USA, in Europe—specifically studies conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) partners—and studies sponsored by the European Union (EU) in Central America. This paper, however, is not intended to provide an exhaustive analysis or to answer all questions and issues related to consumer protection in Costa Rica; rather, it is to identify the main components of the consumer protection framework, its strategies, consumer redress mechanisms, remedies, and consumer protection challenges faced by the country. The last section outlines a conclusion and presents recommendations for improvement.     

Segmenting and Profiling the Chocolate Consumer: An Emerging Market Perspective

Psychographic segmentation has found higher merit among marketing scholars and practicing managers in designing effective marketing strategies to target and deliver better—especially for indulgence food such as chocolates. Hence, adopting a mixed method approach, 17 attitudinal statements were generated through focus group discussions and were used to segment a sample of 301 urban chocolate consumers. The survey data was subjected to a K-means cluster analysis, and it revealed the existence of three distinct clusters: the innovative national; the conservative patriot; and the global seeker. Chi-square analysis was conducted to profile the three groups. Though the study was exploratory in nature, the clusters exhibited such distinct buying patterns that the results hold tremendous value not only from an academic perspective but also for chocolate manufacturers and retailers. All three groups were buying chocolates for gifting purpose, while the young innovators liked to buy for self-gifts as well. Point of sales display had maximum impact on their purchase decision. The global seeker was buying more foreign brands versus the other two, who bought chocolate brands of national origin.     

Economics of Consumer Protection: Contributions and Challenges in Estimating Consumer Injury and Evaluating Consumer Protection Policy

Journal of Consumer Policy - The author examines the role of economics in consumer protection, drawing from her experience at the U. S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has a dual mandate to...     

消费者权益保护的契约分析--从消费契约不完全性视角的研究

市场经济就是一种契约经济，消费者和生产经营者者之间的交易关系本质上就是一种契约关系，消费者权益也都是通过消费契约来界定的．但消费契约又是不完全的，通过消费契约对消费者权利的界定也就不可能是完全的。对于契约（明确的和默认的契约）已经界定的权利来说，消费者权益保护的中心就是契约的有效履行问题；对于契约没有界定的权利来说，消费者权益保护问题的关键就是剩余权利公正合理地配置问题。     

The FTC's Public Interest Requirement: An Anomoly in Consumer Protection*

Proposals for consumer class actions and individual law suits have been considered by Congress during its last two sessions. Both bills sponsored by the administration condition recovery by the consumer upon successful completion of action by the FTC. FTC action, under these proposals, would be an absolute prerequisite to private recovery. Since private recovery is made to depend upon FTC action, the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission becomes critical in determining whether or not a consumer will be entitled to relief. The “Public Interest Requirement” has long been viewed by the courts as a limitation upon Commission Jurisdiction. Thus, if the administration proposals are adopted, that requirement will have to be satisfied before individual consumer recovery will be available. This article seeks to identify the elements of the public interest requirement. Both judicial opinions and the Commission's criteria are considered and evaluated.     

Linking Consumer and Lender Perspectives in Home Buying: a Transaction Price Analysis

The linkage between consumer and lender perspectives in home buying is explored. The realized transaction price in the home buying exchange is used to conceptualize this association. A framework for modeling the home purchase decision from the perspective of both lenders and buyers is presented. Data from a sample of home buyers in the northeastern United States is used to test the models. Results indicate the lender and consumer models developed provide complementary insights into the market determination of homeownership. Findings highlight the emerging significance of psychological expectations and perceptions in the homeownership decision in addition to known income and demographic effects. Implications for public policy on housing are offered.     

Consumer Brand Marketing through Full- and Self-Service Channels in an Emerging Economy

A unique characteristic of emerging economies is the wide variety of dominant channel formats. We evaluate the influence of a brand's marketing mix on channel partners and consumer sales in both full and self-service channels in one emerging economy (Brazil). We use monthly stock-keeping-unit (SKU) level sales, and marketing mix data from the beverage category in southeastern Brazil spanning more than four years. In this study, we specify a panel vector autoregression framework with error decomposition to account for endogeneity between sales and marketing mix, cross-sectional heterogeneity among SKUs, seasonality, and the different aggregation of marketing mix elements across the channels. The results show that structural differences in these channels cause differences in the responses to some of the manufacturers' marketing mix elements. Package size variety, price and merchandising have a greater long-term effect on sales in self-service than in full-service channels. Brands' channel relationship programs support price increases in self-service channels without a corresponding decrease in sales. Distribution gains are important in both channels. In the full-service channel, package size variety has the highest long-term effect among all of the modeled marketing mix elements. Our study highlights that marketing mix strategies popular in the self-service dominant channels of the developed economies are not as effective in the full-service formats that remain important in emerging economies.     

消费者权益的国际私法保护初探

随着全球化趋势的不断增强,各国进一步全方位地融人世界统一大市场,产品、资本和劳动力的跨国流动日趋频繁.不但各国国内企业要面对进口商品和服务的激烈竞争,各国消费者也将直面它所带来的一系列问题,涉外消费纠纷呈明显增加趋势.因而以解决国际民商事法律冲突为己任的国际私法,在国际消费纠纷的处理中起着越来越重要的作用.     

我国电子商务中消费者保护的若干法律问题探析

随着科学技术和信息产业的高速发展,电子商务作为一种新兴的商业模式正在全球范围内兴起。电子商务所产生的法律问题冲击了传统的消费者保护法律制度。为了适应电子商务迅猛发展的形势,并确保消费者对电子商务的信心,必须从保护消费者权益的角度对电子商务消费者权益的法律保护问题进行探讨,以建立和完善我国电子商务立法。     

基于完善我国消费者权益保障制度的思考——兼评《消费者权益保护法》

为更好的保护消费者合法权益,规范市场主体生产经营行为,构建和谐的消费关系,我国消费者权益保障制度应当与时俱进,大胆吸纳公益诉讼制度;进一步优化完善商品召回制度;承认"职业打假人"的法律地位;强化消费者协会的职能;才有助于在全社会营造出商业诚信文化氛围,最终成为扩大内需,拉动经济持续增长的内在动力。     

英国消费者保护法评析

一、背景在二十世纪三十年代以前,英国消费者如果因产品质量问题而受到损害,只能根据合同法寻求法律救济。但前提是作为原告的消费者与被告之间要存在合同关系,即所谓“合同关系不及于第三人原则”。据此,消费者一般不能依据合同法将生产商推向被告席。因为在一般情况下,消费者和生产商之间并没有建立直接的合同关系。生产商的产品往往要经过多个环节才能最终进入消费者手中。反之,如果消费者要根据合同法提起诉讼,便只能起诉与之建立有合同法律关系的销售商。在这样的法律框架下,消费者的权利不能够得到很好的保护。消费者在寻求合同法救济…