This Wednesday, March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, is a day to raise awareness regarding healthy consumption. The UFC-Que Choisir association, which defends consumers in disputes, invites them to be more active in the fight once morest the high cost of living.
Known for defending consumers in disputes, the UFC-Que Choisir association is taking advantage of this World Consumer Rights Day to alert the population to the weight it can weigh in political decisions. “The day when we will be 2,500 or 3,000 members and go to see political decision-makers, we will have a certain weight to impose decrees, laws, regulations in favor of consumers”explains Gilles Vernier, president of the association.
For the time being, the UFC-Que Choisir in New Caledonia has 800 members: seven volunteers trained in reception and especially in consumer law. Lawyers deployed throughout the territory from Nouméa to Koné.
“There is angry receipt [sur Facebook ndlr], it’s a way to raise the alarm. We work a lot with the DAE [Direction des affaires économiques] who does an extraordinary job although there are not enough of them to play the police in the consumer business.”
Gilles Vernier, president of the UFC-Que Choisir association
But today with the rise in consumer prices, the president of the association would like consumers to be more active in the fight once morest the high cost of living, like certain civic organizations. “We would like consumers to be whistleblowers too. That’s the buzzword, he continues. There is Angry receipt, it’s a way of sounding the alarm. We work a lot with the DAE [Direction des affaires économiques] who does an extraordinary job although there are not enough of them to play the police in the consumer business.”
This year, the theme of World Consumer Rights Day is fair digital finance to reflect changes in consumption patterns. Faced with the development of digital financial services and in the era of social networks, new risks have appeared such as account hacking, phishing or theft of bank data.