Consumer law in Argentina and the MERCOSUR

The paper reports on the new Argentine Consumer Protection Act (CPA) which was adopted by the Parliament in 1993 but partially vetoed by the President. It aims at creating a specific system of consumer protection law, thereby extending the already existing provision of the Argentine Civil Code and special market legislation. The CPA tries to improve the position of the consumer in the marketplace and vis-à-vis public services before, during and after conclusion of a contract. It contains provisions on conciliation, access to justice, and collective redress. It attaches great importance to the establishment of consumer associations and to consumer education. Finally, the author looks at the importance of the CPA for regional integration in South America through MERCOSUR.

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Zusammenfassung Verbraucherrecht in Argentinien und der südamerikanische WirtschaftsverbundDer Beitrag berichtet über das neue argentinische Verbraucherschutzgesetz, MERCUSUR. das vom Parlament im Jahre 1993 verabschiedet wurde, gegen das aber der Präsident teilweise Einspruch erhoben hat. Dieses Gesetz strebt die Schaffung eines Verbraucherrechtes an, das über die bereits existierenden Bestimmungen des argentinischen Zivilrechtes und einzelner spezieller Marktgesetze hinausgeht. Es versucht, die Rechtsstellung des Konsumenten auf dem Markt und gegenüber öffentlichen Dienstleistungen sowohl vor, als auch während und nach Abschlu\ von Kaufverträgen zu stärken. Es enthält Regelungen zu Fragen der Schlichtung, des Rechtszuganges und der öffentlichen Rechtshilfe. Es legt starkes Gewicht auf die Entwicklung von Verbraucherorganisationen und von Verbrauchererziehung. Am Ende des Beitrages analysiert der Autor die Wichtigkeit des neuen Gesetzes für die Integration Argentiniens in den südamerikanischen Wirtschaftsverbund MERCUSUR.

     

The strategic position of consumers in the information society

In this paper, a conceptual framework is outlined for examining the strategic position of consumers in a society in which computer networks are assigned an increasingly important role in the distribution of goods and services. The framework deals with relationships among consumers as well as relationships between consumers and other actors in the distribution system, and in both cases the relationships can be based on either common or conflicting interests. With the aid of the framework, the author characterizes the strategic position of consumers in terms of influence and power or powerlessness.The technological impacts dealt with are related to both the consumers' own use of computer technology, and its use by other parties such as suppliers and retailers. Examples of developments discussed in the paper are computerized checkout registers, electronic funds transfer systems, and home computers connected to central information systems.The author predicts that the strategic position of consumers will be weakened as the new technologies become more commonplace while the strategic position of the most powerful commercial and institutional actors is likely to be strengthened. A number of strategies for collective consumer action which could countervail this tendency, are outlined at the end of the paper.

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Die strategische Position der Verbraucher in der Informationsgesellschaft

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag entwickelt zunächst einen Bezugsrahmen für die Beurteilung der strategischen Position von Verbrauchern in einer Gesellschaft, in der Computer-Netzwerke eine immer größere Rolle auch bei der Vermarktung von Gütern und Dienstleistungen spielen. Dieser Bezugsrahmen unterscheidet zwischen Beziehungen, die innerhalb der Konsumentenschaft bestehen, und solchen, die zwischen Konsumenten einerseits und anderen Akteuren im Verteilungssystem andererseits bestehen; in beiden Fällen können Beziehungen auf gemeinsamen Interessen wie auf einander entgegenstehenden Interessen beruhen. Mit Hilfe dieser Unterscheidung kennzeichnet der Autor die strategische Position von Verbrauchern durch die Möglichkeit ihrer Einflußnahme und durch ihre Machtstellung bzw. Machtlosigkeit.Die technologischen Wirkungen, mit denen sich der Beitrag beschäftigt, beziehen sich auf die Nutzung der Computertechnologien durch die Verbraucher selbst wie auch durch andere Marktparteien wie Hersteller und Händler. Als Beispiele werden Entwicklungen im Bereich der elektronischen Ladenkassen, des elektronischen Zahlungsverkehrs und der an zentrale Informationssysteme angekoppelten Home-Computer diskutiert.Der Autor gelangt zu der Prognose, daß die strategische Position von Verbrauchern mit zunehmender Verbreitung neuer Technologien tendenziell abnehmen wird, während die strategische Position der mächtigeren kommerziellen und institutionellen Akteure gestärkt werden dürfte. Der Beitrag schließt mit der Diskussion einiger Möglichkeiten kollektiver Verbraucheraktionen, die dieser Entwicklung entgegenwirken könnten.

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Sigmund Grønmo is Research Director, The Norwegian Fund for Market and Distribution Research, Fredensborgveien 24, N-0177 Oslo 1, Norway, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Oslo. During the academic year 1986–1987 he is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Marketing, Illinois State University.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the symposium New Challenges for European Consumer Policy, held at Heiligkreuztal, FRG, on March 17–20, 1986, under the sponsorship of the European Cultural Foundation, the Commission of the European Communities, and IBM Deutschland. The author received very useful comments from other participants at the symposium, in particular from Klaus G. Grunert, Carl-Heinz Moritz, and Hans B. Thorelli. Furthermore, the author is grateful for comments received from several colleagues at the Norwegian Fund for Market and Distribution Research, at the University of Oslo, and at Illinois State University.     

John Braithwaite: Regulation,crime, freedom; Peter Cartwright: Consumer protection and the criminal law: Law,theory, and policy in the UK

Journal of Consumer Policy -     

消费教育中的"消协":职能、问题与改进思路

在与厂商的竞争中,消费者处于弱势地位,而消费者弱势的集中表现是信息不足.因此,消费教育的核心任务,就是通过种种途径和方法,增加消费者的知识和信息,提高消费质量,增强消费者的维权能力,降低消费风险.作为正式组织的消费者协会(或委员会),承担着重要的职责,在消费教育中的地位不可替代.     

Consumer responses to price discrimination: Discriminating bases, inequality status, and information disclosure timing influences

This study broadly explores consumers' perceived unfairness, negative emotions, internal reference price, and store choice under five common methods of price discrimination using two experimental studies. Study 1 investigates the interaction between discriminating bases and inequality status. Results reveal that discriminating bases only influence perceived unfairness for advantaged consumers, but affect all four responses for disadvantaged consumers. For disadvantaged consumers, direct discrimination that complies with social norms evokes the weakest unfavorable responses, whereas direct discrimination against social norms triggers the highest perception of unfairness and negative emotions but has similar effects on internal reference price and store choice to indirect discrimination. Study 2 examines the effect of information disclosure timing by comparing pre- and post-purchase disclosure policies. Results show that post-purchase disclosure of discrimination information elicits higher negative emotions for indirect discrimination involving coupon and purchase quantity, but is rather inconsequential for direct discrimination or indirect discrimination through membership.     

Consumer Religiosity: Consequences for Consumer Activism in the United States

In recent times, organizations have experienced consumer backlash as a result of decisions to support controversial causes. To date, little research has attempted to explain consumers’ negative response as a function of religion. This study addresses that gap in the literature and examines consumer religious commitment and Christian consumers’ conservative beliefs in the United States as motivating factors for consumer activist behavior and boycott participation. Findings from a national sample of 531 consumers suggest that consumers evaluate seller’s actions and form ethical judgments. These judgments are a major explanatory variable in consumers’ voice complaints, third-party complaint intentions, and boycott intentions.     

How Consumer Ethnocentrism (CET), Ethnocentric Marketing,and Consumer Individualism Affect Ethnocentric Behavior in China

This study investigates how the value of consumer ethnocentrism (CET) and ethnocentric marketing affect consumers' purchase intentions for domestic and foreign brands in China. In predicting ethnocentric consumer behavior, past research has tended to focus on consumers' ethnocentric values rather than ethnocentric marketing stimuli. In addition, this study examines how the consumer value of individualism and collectivism (IC) affects ethnocentric choice behavior. An experimental study was conducted on 220 Chinese millennials, using fictitious advertisements. The study found that the CET value has moderate effects on consumer purchase intentions for foreign brands, while it strongly influences consumer purchases of domestic brands. In addition, the findings suggest that ethnocentric advertising may not encourage purchases of domestic brands, but can discourage foreign brand purchases. More significantly, individualistic consumers were found to show a greater preference for foreign brands and also their brand choices were less affected by the CET value and ethnocentric advertising.     

Consumer Behavior,Robertson, Thomas S., Joan Zielinski and Scott Ward. Glenview,IL: Scott,Foresman and Company, 1984. 640 pp. $24.95

Abstract

Attempts to fund a JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING began in the early 1960s, largely through the efforts of C.H. Sandage. Although not successful in getting foundation funds, Sandage was instrumental in publishing Occasional Papers in Advertising as a forerunner of a journal. Other individuals became involved with the quest for a journal, eventually securing sufficient funds to start, and Volume 1, Number 1 of the Journal of Advertising appeared in 1972. Governance of the Journal was in the hands of a self-perpetuating Board of Directors, with loose ties to the American Academy of Advertising. This arrangement was due to philosophical differences between those desirous of establishing a journal and the then Executive Committee of the Academy. Monetary problems and differences in viewpoint of journal content plagued those responsible for the Journal in its earlier years. By 1979, efforts were underway to merge the autonomous Journal Board of Directors into a Publications Committee within the Academy proper. The consolidation occurred in 1981 through the re-writing of Academy Bylaws.     

Consumer Sales Law in Poland: Changing the Law,Changing Attitudes

The purpose of this paper is to show what the future implementation of the Consumer Sales Directive by Poland may involve. The analysis focuses on the substantive legal and other changes necessary to give full effect to the Directive. Polish guarantees law is compared with the Directive in order to identify similarities and divergences and highlight areas in need of reform. A brief account of the extra-legal factors affecting the position of consumers in post-Communist countries supplements the legal analysis in order to show what sort of reforms are necessary. It will be demonstrated that the black letter laws do not need as much change as certain other issues, such as political, economic, and social factors, and, most of all, the idiosyncrasies of the legal profession. Finally, the role of the European Communities in the process of harmonisation of post-Socialist laws with the European Union standards is briefly analysed. Although the analysis of guarantee laws is focused on Poland, the reader is encouraged to see the wider picture of post-Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and the specificity of the position of consumers there.     

Sex, Personality, and Sustainable Consumer Behaviour: Elucidating the Gender Effect

Sustainable consumer behaviour—behaviour motivated or influenced by social and/or environmental considerations—is an important topic in public policy and consumer psychology. Research on the antecedents of sustainable consumer behaviour has found a robust “gender effect”: women are more likely than men to express concern about consumption’s broader impacts and to act upon those concerns. The mechanisms underlying the gender effect have not been well elucidated. At the same time, more limited research has found that sustainable consumer behaviour is also influenced by personality: more agreeable and more open consumers are more likely to place importance on and to act on social and environmental concerns. Separate research in personality psychology has shown that women tend to be more agreeable than men. The authors integrate these findings to propose and test a model in which personality mediates the effect of sex on sustainable consumer behaviour. The personality differences mediating this effect are the same ones elsewhere subsumed within “gender” differences. Our findings clarify the mechanisms underlying the observed sex effect, confirm the utility of personality constructs in clarifying differences in consumer attitudes and behaviours, and have compelling implications for public policy.     

Consumer education in the UK: new developments in policy,strategy and implementation

Consumer education is an integral part of the European Community's consumer policy. It plays a key role in consumer empowerment, helping consumers gain the skills, attitudes and knowledge they need to be able to gear the choices they make as consumers to their economic interests and to protect their health and safety. In its policy statement, the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection states that the European Community is aware that joint measures at national and Community levels should be more structured, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness. This paper aims to set out the current policy and strategic context for consumer education and empowerment in the UK; review the role of UK government bodies and other agencies concerned with developments; review recent literature; present the results of interviews with an extensive range of key stakeholders and the results of a survey of service heads for trading standards throughout the UK. It will consider implementation, partnership, resources, ideas and opportunities. The research found that the agenda for consumer education in the UK is at an interesting stage of development. The Enterprise Act 2002 gives the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) a statutory power to carry out educational activities. Consumer education is also moving up the agenda in the trading standards service. In addition, the teaching of citizenship in English schools is already stimulating new developments in consumer education. The paper will consider the need for organizations like these to work together to build on these policy developments and ensure that consumer education gains the profile it needs to influence consumer attitudes and behaviour.