Economic Integration and Consumer Protection in Southeast Asia: ASEAN Product Liability Law and Safety Regulation

Abstract

Southeast Asia has long been known as a particularly dynamic part of the global economy. In 2007 the leaders of the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations further agreed to accelerate the project to complete a single market or “ASEAN Economic Community” by the end of 2015. Less well known is that their blueprint also committed to improve and harmonise consumer law, to prevent a regulatory race to the bottom. A new Committee has encouraged member states to enact strict product liability regimes aimed at making it easier for consumers (and sometimes even businesses) to be compensated for harms suffered from unsafe products. ASEAN states have also introduced new or revised laws allowing regulators to set mandatory safety standards before products are put into circulation, and to enforce post-market controls such as bans and recalls of unsafe products.

This is the co-editors’ Introduction to a conference volume that adds two further introductory chapters to ten country reports detailing these consumer product safety laws, in the context of international and national regulatory structures and dispute resolution systems.

Keywords: Consumer law, comparative law, Asian law, international economic law, law and development

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K33