We highlighted a shocking double standard in the car industry which was putting consumers’ lives at risk. Motor manufacturing giants were selling cars in unregulated markets with minimal or no safety features. This was able to happen because car manufacturers were choosing to only comply with existing weak national regulations for these markets, even though they complied with stronger United Nations vehicle safety standards in cars made for other regions. As a result, millions of unsafe cars that did not meet UN Vehicle Safety Regulations were being sold in low and middle-income countries, where 90% of the total global road crash deaths occur. Lives were being lost. This injustice couldn’t be allowed to continue.
By campaigning for improved car safety in Latin America, we were determined to eradicate the shocking double standards adopted by global car manufacturers, which was putting consumers’ lives at risk.
With our members in Latin America, we worked with Bloomberg Philanthropies, alongside the Global and Latin New Car Assessment Programme (Latin NCAP) to save lives through safer cars.
Together we were determined to remove dangerous zero-star cars from the road.
Cars were being sold in Latin America and India with minimal or no safety features. These vehicles could not be sold in the US, Europe, Japan or Australia, where car safety regulation is tighter and manufacturers provide better car safety information.
Showrooms were providing sparse and inaccurate information about car safety features: claiming, for example, that a large boot or trunk would make a car more crashworthy.
Consumers International joined world leaders at the World Economic Forum's Annual meeting in Davos, 21-24 January 2020, to ensure that the global consumer voice was represented in high-level discussions on privacy and digital rights, sustainable consumption, plastics recycling, the future of food, finance and energy.
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To mark World Standards Day 2019, our Advocacy Manager Antonino Serra outlines why international standards have such a pivotal role to play in making the products and services we use on a daily basis better, safer and more sustainable.
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