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SIST Consumer Committee

SIST Consumer Committee

The SIST Committee for Consumers

The SIST Committee for Consumers follows the priorities of ANEC (European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardization) and ISO/COPOLCO (ISO Committee on Consumer Policy).

The European Association for the Coordination of Consumer Representation in Standardization (ANEC) is an organization that promotes and protects the common European interest of consumers in the standardization process and in related fields, thus establishing conformity, market control and enforcement. ANEC cooperates with CEN and CENELEC and actively participates in ISO/COPOLCO.

ISO/COPOLCO is ISO's international committee on consumer policy. It examines ways to help consumers who use standardization and ways to improve their participation in national and international standardization. It provides a forum for the exchange of information on the experiences of consumer participation in the development and implementation of standards in their field and on other issues of interest to them in national and international standardization. ISO/COPOLCO advises ISO on harmonized consumer views on matters relevant to ISO's current and potential future work in standardization and conformity assessment. It also advises ISO on new or revised policies or approaches within ISO as they relate to consumer needs.

The COPOLCO work strategy for the period 2023-2030 increased the impact on consumer activity, established a consumer network for information exchange, and proposed the preparation of new standards aimed at them.

COPOLCO’s most important areas of work cover:

- health and food,

- tourist services,

- digital services,

- internet security,

- digital economy, etc.

COPOLCO's work strategy until 2030 is primarily aimed at taking into account international cooperation in the creation of all standards. The tendency is to encourage more results in the development of regional standards through regional cooperation and then to include those regionally recognized in international ISO standards.

Regional standards on the global market also include European standards. In order to achieve the goals of sustainable development and prevent the looming climate crisis, COPOLCO must constantly adapt to the challenges of the future.

Also the cooperation of ISO/COPOLCO with ISO/CASCO (International Committee for Conformity Assessment) and other groups that are regulated within other technical committees and advocate for consumer protection (e.g. the areas of medicines, food, furniture, services, etc.) is very important.

SIST Committee for Consumers became ISO/COPOLCO’s full member on June 8, 2011. The committee gathers representatives from the Consumers Association of Slovenia, the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, the Market Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food.

In accordance with the work program of ISO/COPOLCO, members of the SIST Committee for Consumers have so far mainly focused on the following areas:

- COVID-19,

- Products for children,

- Social Security,

- Construction safety,

- Nanotechnology,

- Food safety and prevention of fraudulent practices,

- Tourism and related services,

- Water supply,

- Environmental management systems,

- Financial services,

- Corporate Social Responsibility,

- Cosmetics,

- Road traffic safety management systems,

- Fire safety,

- Safety of household appliances,

- Health informatics,

- The needs of elderly and disabled people,

- Durability of products.

Members of the SIST Committee for Consumers have endorsed some ISO standards that are relevant in terms of consumer protection as national standards, for example: SIST ISO 10393:2018 Consumer Product Recall - Guidelines for Suppliers, SIST ISO 31700-1:2024 Consumer protection - Privacy by design for consumer goods and services - Part 1: High-level requirements, SIST-TP ISO/TR 31700-2:2024 Consumer protection — Privacy by design for consumer goods and services — Part 2: Use cases, SIST ISO 5665:2024 Consumer incident investigation — Requirements and guidance.

President of the SIST Committee for Consumers, dr. Mira Kos Skubic, works as an expert in two COPOLCO working groups, ISO/COPOLCO/WG 9 Group of key areas and ISO/COPOLCO/WG 24 Consumer protection.

SIST informs its users about new SIST standards by publishing the list monthly on its website. The publication (link available here) collects bibliographic data on Slovenian standards issued in the current month and provides users with the translation of their summaries in the national language. Throughout the year, SIST prepares 11 lists of newly published SIST standards with abstracts.

Further, SIST also informs consumers about new standard proposals through a dedicated website (link to site). During the public enquiry stage, all proposals for SIST standardization documents are available free of charge and all interested parties can submit their comments on documents of their interest through this site.

Notices about new ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, ETSI projects are also announced monthly.

SIST also regularly organizes and conducts thematic seminars in various areas of standardization.

All current standardization news is available to consumers on the introductory website of SIST: https://www.sist.si/.

Consumers must play an active role in the development of standards, products or services, to ensure that these meet their needs better. The contribution of SIST is to make this easier for consumers and encourage them to get involved in standardization and actively participate in its work processes.