Page 175 - Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

eobf_C 7/5/06 2:57 PM Page 152

Consumer Protest

ment sterilization; and formaldehyde, which is used in to register various individual complaints with companies
countless educational and industrial environments. All and governmental representatives. Consumers have come
these standards stemmed from the work (from 1974 to recognize the Internet as an efficient, effective, and
through 1983) of the Public Citizen Health Research immediate tool for sharing concerns with their state and
Group headed by Sidney M. Wolfe. national legislators. Some legislators have indicated that
they receive thousands of e-mails daily from their con-
stituents.
BOYCOTTS
In 1995 Monroe Friedman (1934– ) defined a consumer
boycott as an action that threatens an organization’s sur- LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES
vival by depriving it of sales. Such action is “an attempt by Examples of legislative initiatives resulting from con-
one or more parties to achieve certain objectives by urging sumer-generated efforts include California Senator
individual consumers to refrain from making selected pur- Dianne Feinstein’s bipartisan Internet Pharmacy Con-
chases in the marketplace” (p. 199). Local, state, and sumer Protection Act (the Ryan Haight Bill), which
international boycotts appear to be less common than required new Internet pharmacy disclosure standards and
national boycotts. The duration of boycotts varies: Short- minimized instances where domestic Internet pharmacies
term boycotts usually last three months or less, whereas can sell drugs without authentic prescriptions. The pass-
long-term boycotts sometimes last more than a year. ing of the Electricity Deregulation and Blackout Preven-
Friedman also noted that boycott characteristics evolve tion Act Initiative of 2004 was an effort by California
over time. From the beginning announcement that a boy- citizens to restore the concept of customer service by the
cott is being considered, the level of militancy builds, and utility companies by eliminating deregulation legislation
many media-oriented boycotts combine the power of the that had been passed in 2001. That deregulation resulted
media with their own actions to achieve the desired out- in the 2001 energy crisis and left many Californians with-
come. out electric service, ultimately costing California billions
of dollars. BlackBoxVoting.org, a consumer protection
In 1994 protesters boycotted dairy products in an
Web site for elections, is funded by citizen donations
effort to prevent products from cows injected with bovine
(http://www.blackboxvoting.org). The National Con-
growth hormone (BGH), a hormone to increase bovine
sumers League works to protect consumers from tele-
milk production, from being marketed. The hormone
phone and online fraud.
has the potential to create other medical complications,
which could result in health risks to consumers. The Public Citizen, founded by Nader, is a public-
interest, watchdog organization frequently critical of cor-
FDA affirmed that the concerns expressed by boycott
participants might be valid. In response to the boycott, porations. The efforts of Public Citizen are largely respon-
several national food distributors and grocery chains sible for passage of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the
announced that they would not sell goods from BGH- Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act of 2005. Another
treated cows. BGH, however, continues to be used by Nader-founded nonprofit organization, Essential Infor-
some dairy farmers. mation, encourages private citizens to become active and
engaged in their communities. The Citizen Works Web
site (http://www.citizenworks.org), founded in April 2001
SELF-REGULATION
by Nader—recruits and trains citizen activists and directs
As mentioned earlier, self-regulation through codes of eth- them to focused action campaigns.
ical conduct and establishing, reviewing, and maintaining Issues that may have been paramount in consumers’
product standards has become essential for maintaining minds prior to September 11, 2001 (such as genetically
fruitful customer/organizational interaction. Self-regula- modified crops, Congressional ethics and election reform,
tion has engendered creation of such consumer-focused and corporate welfare), became less prominent after day.
organizations as Better Business Bureaus, the Interna- Consumers began to refocus their activities on more
tional Business Ethics Institute, and the Internet Law and bread-and-butter issues and the economy, such as changes
Policy Forum. in Medicaid and Medicare, prescription drugs, health-care
Since the 1990s consumers have become more confi- management organizations, identity theft, homeland
dent in the power of their joint efforts to protect their col- security, and utility costs (particularly gasoline and heat-
lective interests. Numerous new consumer-interest groups ing oil prices). Media outlets of all kinds, particularly
have organized, and the Internet has been recognized as a since 9/11, have articulated growing consumer concerns
forum for both sharing information in educating private in these areas. Further, changes in consumer attitudes
citizens about the impact of various big-business and gov- toward these issues is also reflected in not only refocused
ernmental activities on their quality of life, and as a means national governmental agendas but also through the direc-

152 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION