Consumer policy is a comparably young policy area. Yet it has emancipated from a narrow focus on health and safety issues and engages today self-consciously in a wide range of policy areas such as finance, energy or information society issues. Yet, today’s consumer policy is challenged. Some criticize its actionism, incoherence and paternalism. Critics argue that these insufficiencies lead to an over-ambitious policy and unintended damages to other legitimate policy objectives. In a conference Justice and Consumer Protection Minister Jochen Hartloff, Director of the Consumer Advice Center Rheinland-Pfalz Ulrike von der Lühe and Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun Director of ConPolicy GmbH discuss the question how consumer policy can be professionalised.
