All posts by Christine Riefa

IACL at the United Nations International Group of Experts 01.07.2024, Geneva

Some news from the  IGE at the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Group of Experts (IGE) on Consumer Protection.

The IACL has endorsed the outstanding work carried out by the 3 informal working groups. Special mention goes to Christine Riefa, who leads the E-commerce Working Group, and Ana Cipriano Muniz, who is heading the Gender and Consumption Working Group. As I said at the meeting ‘their valuable efforts have inspired us to organize panels at the Buenos Aires Congress from July 23 to 26, 2025. These panels will focus on the two ongoing Technical Notes prepared by the Working Group on E-commerce, namely ‘Children as special vulnerable consumers and digital consumption’ and ‘AI and consumer protection challenges.’ Additionally, is to be mentioned the ongoing Checklist on Gender-inclusive Consumption, which has been prepared by the WG on Gender and Consumption, covering areas such as Marketing, Financial Services, and Gender Pricing.”

The Keynote speaker of this IGE on consumer protection was my dear colleague Prof. Laura Best, from South Africa. We congratulate her for the excellent and insightful open speech.

On this first day at the IGE, we also had an excellent panel about the protection of tourists as consumers. It was presented the 2021 International Code of the Protection of Tourists from the UN World Tourism Organisation, a soft law with valuable principles and recommendations for consumer protection, especially in emergency situations, now with 32 Member States adherence.

We are grateful for the collaboration in Geneva of our entire IACL-ILA Delegation, including former President Professor Thierry Bourgoignie from Belgium, the co-organizer of the Buenos Aires Congress Professor Martina Rojo from USAL Argentina, the Board Member Professor Christine Riefa from Reading, along me and Dr. Yu Ying from Oxford, representing also the Committee on International Protection of Consumers from the ILA.

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With thanks.
Claudia Lima Marques, President, IACL.

Next face to face IACL conference announced for 2023, in Hamburg

Next IACL conference announced.

The 18th World Consumer Law Conference of the International Association of Consumer Law (IACL) will take place in Hamburg from 19.07. to 21.07.2023 at the Rudolf Steiner Haus and carry the title „Challenges and Unanswered Questions of Consumer Law„.

IACL conferences are held every two years and mostly hosted by universities. The hosting countries are deliberately chosen from the Global South as well as the Global North. The last conferences were held in the USA (2019), Brazil (2017), the Netherlands (2015), Australia (2013), UK (2011), India (2009), New Zealand (2007) and South Africa (2005).

The IACL promotes debates on consumer protection and consumer law. Conference attendees include university lecturers, judges, lawyers and representatives of regulatory authorities, banks, business groups and consumer organisations. The conferences are open to all interested parties, not only to members of academic and non-academic consumer research and educational institutions.

The aim of the IACL is to develop research networks and stimulate joint research projects in the area of consumer law, consumer policy and consumer relations. This includes supporting government institutions, universities, consumer organisations and experts.

The conference will be hosted by the IACL Executive Committee (chaired by Prof. Michelle Louw, Cape Town) in cooperation with a local executive committee led by Dr. Sally Peters and Prof. Udo Reifner.

https://www.iff-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen/18th-iacl-conference-2023/

for up-to-date information follow us on Twitter @iacl_net

Forthcoming conference you may be interested in…

Consumer Protection in Transition: Digital Transformation and Better Enforcement 

23-25 September 2021, online/onsite hybrid conference

Participation is free, but a registration is needed. Please find the registration page here and the LinkedIn announcement here.

This event features academics with close links to the IACL including Prof Geraint Howells and Mateja Durovic. have a look at the great programme: https://ps7.pravri.uniri.hr/en/program/

Next newsletter… send us your contributions

In order to keep you all up-to-date with developments in the many jurisdictions represented in the IACL, we will assemble the next newsletter in April 2021. Can all members send the following items, to serkankaayaa@yahoo.com

– short reports on consumer law reforms in your jurisdiction 

– short reports on key cases in your jurisdiction

– events, seminars, conferences

– books, articles and other publications (preferably with abstracts)

All content in English or French please and up to 500 words.

For any items that may not be able to wait that long, you can contact us to post on our website https://www.iacl.net.au  or our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/IACLaw/  or Twitter @iacl_net

Want to diversify your reading list? A fantastic new initiative…

A great initiative from fellow consumer academics, under the impulsion of Dr Christine Riefa, one of our board members, has led to the development of a new free database to help all of us involved in consumer law teaching. The database was created thanks to the hard work of Joasia Lusak and the commitment of a number of members of the Female Consumer Law Collective. So far the databased is focussed on UK/EU scholarship, but the team hopes that it will inspire other localised initiatives… If you want to diversify your reading lists and include high profile female scholarship, check ZOTERO and search for Female Consumer Law Collective.: https://www.zotero.org/groups/2539563/consumer_law_female_collective_-_database

The team welcomes suggestions for new scholarship to be added. The database is organised as a teaching course – with week by week reading. Any comments, or congratulations gratefully received by the organisers! Email: Christine.riefa@brunel.ac.uk

The full team is composed of: Christine Riefa, Joasia Lusak, Charlotte Pavillon, Vanessa Mak, Andrea Fejos and Kristin Nemeth.