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Paris, France, 23 April 2012

The growing availability and distribution of innovative digital goods and services have provided consumers worldwide with numerous benefits including ready access to a wide range of high quality products. While consumers are increasingly purchasing such products through a wide range of channels, including e-commerce, social networking and cloud computing platforms, the level of consumer protection accorded to digital content products often differs from that accorded to physical goods. Moreover, misleading or unfair commercial practices in this field have raised concerns. Ways that consumers’ capacities to fully profit from the rapidly evolving digital economy could be enhanced in this context will be explored by stakeholders.

On 23 April, in Paris, the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy will hold a workshop to explore emerging consumer-related issues with governments, civil society, businesses, and academia. Further information is available in the draft agenda complete with presentations.
 

The workshop will be organised as part of the current review of the 1999 OECD Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce. It will serve the purposes of discussing market trends, as well as opportunities and challenges for consumers.

• For any questions in relation to the event, please contact the OECD Secretariat (Brigitte.Acoca@oecd.org). 
• For information related to the accommodation and getting to the OECD Conference Centre, please consult this webpage.

• Workshop on consumer protection in online and mobile payments (2011)
• OECD Conference on Empowering E-Consumers: Strengthening Consumer Protection in the Internet Economy (2009)
• OECD/ICPEN Joint Meeting on Electronic Commerce (2009)

• OECD roundtable on consumer protection in the purchase of digital content products: summary of discussion
• Further OECD publications relating to consumer protection issues in the Internet economy are available here.