Mhealth – opportunities and privacy risks
Out of the apps on your phone, how many of them are about health, fitness or lifestyle? Quite a few probably. Mobile health (mHealth) is trendy. It has the potential to transform the way healthcare is delivered because it allows...
Making clean cars work for consumers in the 2020s
In the next decade, the automotive sector has a huge chance to rid itself of its bad-boy-Dieselgate tag and clean up the cars of the future. This means an investment in technologies that will cut emissions and the cost of...
Playing with consumers’ health: game over?
When you can’t access a drug treatment because of its price, you’ve probably run out of options. This is what happened some years ago to some patients affected by a severe eye disease [1]. They were denied treatment due to...
Air passenger rights have not taken off
We don’t know if readers are among the 25% air passengers who have experienced flight delays, but they very well could be because that is a shockingly high percentage. We have released an international survey together with 7 other consumer...
The difference between a Stradivarius violin and your electric toothbrush
Antonio Stradivari was an Italian genius who created over 1,000 musical instruments of the finest quality. Several hundred of his famous violins survived the past 350 years through turbulent times, and their sound still rejoices us today. Their owners would...
Changing the way we consume electricity
Until now, people consumed whatever electricity they needed and then received a bill for it. Apart from the bill, there was little way of them knowing what their consumption actually was. Now however, new technology and gadgets are hitting the...
EU-US consumer groups want to change trade deals: split ‘tariffs’ from ‘rules’
If you work in policy communications, you’ll be familiar with the amount of technical terms and acronyms that come with conferences full of experts. You’ll know how difficult it can be to make things understandable and to cut out the...
Let’s Move Away from a Fossilised Vision of the Consumer Benefits of Trade
Last week, US and EU consumer groups joined in the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue met in Washington DC for their annual meeting. In this guest blog, Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy, Consumer Federation of America, shares her impressions....
Want to build an international investment court that won’t go up in flames? Fix the underlying system!
Whether or not you are a trade aficionado or aficionada, you have likely noticed the glaring headlines about free trade deals between the European Union and Canada or the United States. A root cause of the controversy around these deals...
Fluorinated substances: the best packaging for your fast food?
The food that I serve my three children is likely to contain unwanted substances due to contaminated soil, air or water. It’s sad, but it’s a fact. What I struggle to understand is why problematic substances are intentionally added to...