Beyond 1973: UK Accession and the Origins of EC Consumer Policy

Abstract

| INTRODUCTION'The private consumer is the last and the least to be consulted as the various policies and practices of the Common Market are being developed' (Consumer Council, 1970, p. 23). This was the condemning evaluation of the director and economic advisor of the British Consumer Council after their visit to the European Commission in Brussels in October 1970. At the time, the United Kingdom (UK) was an aspiring member of the European Community (EC), but not yet a member state. In the UK, consumer representation within state institutions went back as far as the First World War (Hilton, 2003). Whereas the dire assessment of consumer representation in the EC by the British Consumer Council visitors to Brussels is therefore understandable, it should not have come as a surprise. After all, the treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) of 1957 did not require member states to confer general regulatory competences for matters relevant to consumers to the EC (Leczykiewicz & Weatherill, 2016). Consumer representation had not assumed a central position in the EC, and there was no EC consumer policy.Fast forward a decade and we can observe an increase in consumer representation in European institutions promoting the development of a consumer policy. In 1973, a new Environment and Consumer Protection Service (ECPS) was created in the European Commission; the Council of the EC adopted programmes for consumer and information policy in 1975 and 1981; and a raft of consumer protection directives was being developed. Negotiations on these directives stretched over many years, reflecting both the complex regime governing the development of directives and the unanimity requirement in the Council prior to the Single European Act. Finally, the expansion of EC consumer policy went hand in hand with an important shift in the

Títul Sports consumption behavior and consumption demand of urban residents in the context of “Internet+”

“…The birth and sustainability of new consumer power cannot be achieved without strong policy guarantees [12][13], and even more so by driving people to accept and adapt to new consumer markets. In fact, the national fitness program and the "Internet+" program provide new content substance as well as operational vehicles to promote residents' sports consumption [14].…”