The ISO’s Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO) Working Group on Consumer Protection in the Global Marketplace (WGGM) has announced plans to develop new work item proposals on the collaborative economy, privacy by design, and vulnerable consumers. The announcement was made at the COPOLCO annual meeting in Geneva earlier this month.
As the U.S. member body to ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is calling for relevant U.S. stakeholders to volunteer to serve as an ANSI expert to the WGGM for the development of one of these new work item proposals or to participate in a U.S. consultative group to support an ANSI expert on one of these subjects.
Here is a brief description of each subject:
Collaborative Economy: Also known as the “sharing” economy, this is an emergent phenomenon with a growing need for consumer protection. COPOLCO stressed that rapid action is required, and an activity template was approved to identify key issues including safety and access to services, varying legal obligations, user liability, consumer risk, and data protection. The WGGM will develop a new work item proposal, taking account of research and further discussions as the basis for a future workshop.
Privacy by Design: Following extensive work to identify issues related to the extent or lack of standards currently addressing privacy and protection of personal data, and the approval of this gap analysis, COPOLCO has invited the GMWG to develop a new work item proposal on digital design for privacy in goods and services. A consumer privacy network was proposed to contribute to the proposal’s development and to coordinate input into future work in the privacy area.
Vulnerable Consumers: Those found to be most in need of increased consumer protections include older persons, children, recent immigrants, and those with mental health issues. Based on collective discussions of needs and analysis in this area, the WGGM has been invited to develop a new work item proposal on vulnerable consumers.
These proposals are expected to be developed by the ISO COPOLCO WGGM over the course of the coming year, before being submitted for ISO membership voting following review at upcoming ISO COPOLCO meetings.
Interested parties are encouraged to contact ANSI Senior Director of International Policy Steve Cornish at scornish@ansi.org by close of business on July 22.