The world’s top forum on competition and consumer protection will reconvene in July, advancing fair markets and safeguarding consumer rights for the benefit of people, businesses and the planet.
© Shutterstock/Zapp2Photo | A customer interacts with an artificial intelligence robot in a shopping mall.
The 9th edition of the United Nations Conference on Competition and Consumer Protection is set for 7-11 July in Geneva, convening national governments, antitrust and consumer authorities, legal experts, businesses, academia and international organizations.
The conference series, held every five years, is the world’s highest-level multilateral meeting on competition and consumer protection.
It provides the global community with a platform to continue building consensus and enhancing consumer welfare through open, fair, dynamic and safe markets that drive sustainable and inclusive development. Interested parties can register to attend.
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is the lead UN agency for competition and consumer protection issues.
The outcome of this conference will chart the global agenda on competition and consumer protection for the coming five years.
They will also help guide UN Trade and Development’s work – such as technical assistance and capacity building – to level commercial playing fields, and support policies and frameworks that protect and empower consumers, particularly in developing countries.
Preview of highlights
This year’s conference will consider a draft resolution on consumer product safety for submission to the UN General Assembly.
The resolution would mark a significant step in international cooperation, as it aims to establish a new global framework to protect consumer worldwide from unsafe goods.
The conference will feature the 16th meeting of the Research Partnership Platform, an informal mechanism through which UN Trade and Development engages academics, policymakers and practitioners to strengthen research and policy analysis on competition and consumer protection.
It will also commemorate two milestones: the 45th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Set of Principles and Rules on Competition and the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection – currently the only global instruments in these fields.
Building consensus to confront new challenges
The five-day conference will examine topics that affect everyday consumers and businesses while digitalization and sustainability increasingly reshape global markets. Substantive discussions will cover:
- Responsible artificial intelligence (AI) in markets: What global actions are necessary to ensure AI-driven markets remain fair, transparent and accountable for consumers?
- Digital competition enforcement tools: How can digital tools improve investigations and crackdown on anti-competitive practices?
- Empowering consumers for a circular economy: How can consumer rights and transparency accelerate the shift to sustainable consumption?
- Integrated policy approaches: How can aligning competition and consumer protection policies and enforcement lead to more inclusive and resilient markets?
- Latest developments in legal and institutional frameworks: UN Trade and Development’s world consumer protection map will provide relevant indicators and information on the status of consumer protection law and policy worldwide.
- Fair and sustainable food markets: How can competition policy better address market distortions, improve fairness and enhance food security while strengthening global food value chains?
- The voluntary peer review of consumer protection law and policy of Angola: How can the African country improve policies and institutional effectiveness to better protect consumers?