FTC Announces OECD Guide for Making Better Consumer Regulations
On July 21, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission hosted a roundtable to present the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recently-published Consumer Policy Toolkit.
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Advises Regulators on 6 Steps for Good Consumer Protection Policies
The Toolkit outlines a six-step process for choosing the best consumer protection policies, and describes a range of policy tools that government officials can use to address consumer problems. Included in the publication are examples drawn from the experiences of more than 20 countries.
The six steps are:
- Define problem - define the consumer problem and its source.
- Measure harm - measure consumer detriment (e.g. the scale of the problem, who it affects, the likely consequences and their severity).
- Decide if action warranted - determine whether consumer detriment warrants a policy action.
- Set policy goal, develop options - set a policy objective and identify the range of policy options.
- Evaluate and select action - evaluate options and select a policy action.
- Evaluate effectiveness - develop a policy review process to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy.
(FTC press release, dated 07/21/10)
OECD Toolkit Executive Summary available here.