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Building Effective Consumer Protection in Digital and Cross-border Markets
The second substantive session addressed one of the defining challenges facing consumer protection authorities today: ensuring effective enforcement in digital and cross-border markets.
Participants observed that online commerce has significantly expanded consumer choice while simultaneously creating complex jurisdictional and enforcement challenges. Digital platforms frequently operate across multiple jurisdictions, making investigation, evidence gathering and enforcement considerably more difficult for national authorities.
Several countries shared practical experiences in responding to these challenges.
El Salvador described a regional cooperation framework across Central America that facilitates coordinated cross-border enforcement actions. Kenya highlighted investments in digital investigation capabilities and risk-based complaint management systems that enable authorities to identify and prioritise serious consumer harm more efficiently. Poland and China discussed approaches for assessing whether online platforms genuinely facilitate consumer choice or instead employ interface designs that manipulate consumer behaviour.
A strong consensus emerged that international cooperation is no longer optional but essential. Effective consumer protection increasingly requires information sharing, regulatory coordination and mutual assistance among national authorities. This need is particularly acute for developing countries, whose domestic enforcement powers often remain limited when dealing with multinational digital businesses.
At the same time, participants recognised that stronger international cooperation must be supported by stronger domestic institutions. Italy emphasised the importance of developing multidisciplinary regulatory teams that combine expertise in law, economics and data science, enabling authorities to respond effectively to increasingly sophisticated digital markets.
Artificial intelligence featured prominently during the latter part of the discussion. Several authorities described how AI is already improving complaint management, fraud detection and the identification of deceptive online practices, including dark patterns. These applications demonstrate the growing potential of AI to enhance regulatory efficiency and strengthen consumer protection enforcement.
However, participants consistently emphasised that AI should complement—not replace—human judgement. Transparency, accountability and appropriate human oversight remain essential to maintaining public trust in regulatory decision-making.
An important policy perspective emerged from Argentina, which cautioned against developing overly technology-specific legislation. Given the pace of technological change, highly prescriptive regulations risk becoming obsolete before they can be effectively implemented. Instead, participants broadly favoured principles-based regulatory frameworks capable of adapting to evolving technologies while maintaining consistent consumer protection objectives.
The session reinforced that the future effectiveness of consumer protection systems will depend not only on technological innovation but also on institutional resilience, international collaboration and regulatory approaches that remain flexible in the face of continuous digital transformation.
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