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Consumer Contracts and Product Safety Law in Southeast Asia: Partly Trading Up?

This paper explores the efforts by the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to implement harmonized minimum standards of consumer protection. This project seeks to avoid a ‘regulatory race to the bottom’ alongside trade and investment liberalization, especially pursuant to the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015. The paper examines regulatory gaps, poor enforcement and access to justice, and other impediments to ‘trading up’ to higher harmonized standards for consumer protection across Southeast Asia, focusing on two main fields: product safety (focusing on general consumer goods, rather than sectoral safety regulation for high-risk products) and regulation aimed at ensuring minimum quality standards in consumer contracts for the supply of goods and services. 
 
Much work remains to be done to enhance ASEAN consumer protection law in both fields, especially in consumer contract law. The safety of tangible goods – beginning with higher-risk and/or everyday products such as foods – meets a fundamental physical need, rather than an economic interest. Introducing and enhancing consumer product safety law has therefore long appealed to governments of all stripes. In addition, there may be more widespread business opposition to ‘trading up’ to higher standards regarding consumer contracts than for the safety of tangible products.