On March 28, 2023, the European Commission hosted the European Consumer Summit 2023. The focus of the Summit was on moving ahead while managing multiple crises.
In the context of his keynote at the beginning of the conference, Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun, Managing Director of the ConPolicy Institute, elaborated on the state of play of consumers in the European Union, trends, opportunities and challenges for consumers in the next two to five years and the implications for consumer policy. In his presentation he focused on the economic situation, digitalization and sustainability.
Regarding the economic situation he argued that consumers – and particularly vulnerable ones – are currently under stress. The major reason for this is the historical cost of living crises. He expected that while inflation will go down in the next two years, pressure on vulnerable consumers will most likely remain high.
Speaking about digitaliziation and consumers he argued that while ever more consumers enjoyed and used a wide range of digital products and services, the imbalance of power between consumers and digital businesses was growing and citizens expected governments to act. When looking into the future, he expected digital asymmetry to grow and that less choice and competition was a real threat.
With regard to the necessary sustainability transformation he highlighted that we were currently far away from consuming responsibly and had to significantly speed up our efforts if we wanted to meet our 2030 targets.
He concluded that consumer policy needed a new mindset and strategic Sustainable Development Goals-guided approach, that we had to secure consumer acceptance and support, applied a user-centric approach in policy making and used digital technology and business innovation for good.
His presentation can be downloaded here.