Consumer Policy Tools

Background Paper to Creating Confident Consumers

May 2003

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Standards

Standards are documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines or definitions of characteristics, to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose. [36] Consumers can use indicators of compliance with a standard as an indicator of safety or quality, as appropriate.

Incorporating standards into regulation can result in better coverage and wider adoption of standards, because compliance becomes compulsory and is not limited to those businesses that choose to adopt voluntary standards. Coverage may be a particularly important issue in some consumer markets, e.g. self-regulatory approaches to weights and measures may result in incomplete coverage, which could cause confusion in relation to a wide variety of consumer goods. Non-compliance with standards may be subject to some form of sanction or redress due to their incorporation into regulation.

[36] Supra at note 15.

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