4.1 Consumers' priorities in standards
Consumers expect products and services to meet their needs. We have already seen general criteria that consumers use to judge a product or a service, under 2.1, 2.2 and 3.1. However, these concerns change over time and may vary according to country and region.
Consumer representatives try to enhance the requirements within the standards that define these products and services. They propose specifications for standards, which are favourable from a consumer’s point of view. This results in products and services with desirable characteristics from the consumer perspective.
Consumers’ priorities can change in accordance with general societal trends and expectations. Recent developments include the rising use of the Internet and mobile communications, purchasing decisions based increasingly on ethical production and distribution processes for goods and services, the increasing volume of international trade in goods and services, and – in many countries – growing ageing populations whose needs must be considered.
To monitor current projects in ISO, the ISO Committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) has a specialized working group, called Priorities from a consumer’s point of view. It provides a network which encourages and coordinates the work of consumer representatives from ISO members, and from Consumers International, who participate in selected technical committees, at the national or international level.
Another task of the COPOLCO Priorities working group is to identify priority areas of consumer engagement in standards in development, and to track activity and provide updates about these areas every year. The COPOLCO priority areas and annual updates appear in the annually published COPOLCO Priority Programme.
For more information about how the Priorities Group works, see the Handbook.