Consumer Protection in the Shadow of the Global Financial Crisis - A Study on the Way Forward of Consumer Protection in European Union, Republic of Moldova and P.R. of China

Abstract:     
The Chinese version of this paper can be found at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2008149.

As could be expected, the global financial crisis is on everybody’s mind and causing a lot of worries. The current crisis has reached the consumers globally and intensified conversations about consumer protection. It has threatened their wealth as people have lost their assets, savings and they are facing major concerns about their future stability.

This financial crisis began with a failure to protect consumers. Effective, affirmative and preventative consumer protection needs to be a major part of the global solution.

This paperwork intends to make a contribution to those debates by addressing a few specific questions: Did a lack of consumer protection cause the financial crisis? Who is likely to benefit from this present financial crisis, and who is likely to lose out? How can countries design appropriate formal coordination policy and mechanisms between their central governments and other relevant consumer regulatory agencies? The approaches recommended by the paperwork are built upon the premise that national governments cannot be effective in isolation, and ultimately depend on collaboration with other regulatory agencies to effectively fulfill their mandate of consumer protection, price transparency, economic and financial stability.

Additionally, this paper reviews documentation and some relevant research, articles, proposals that relates on the one side regarding consumers in the evolving reform of the consumer protection regime after the global financial crisis and on the other side to help understand the how consumer protection watchdogs can best respond.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 28

Keywords: Consumer Protection, Financial Crisis, Policy Implications, A Comparative Study

JEL Classification: D18, D60, E20, G28, K29, K39, G38, H53, H77, I31, L31, O57, O19

working papers series