Markets rely on consumers actively participating by choosing between different products and services according to their preferences.

Experience demonstrates consumers regularly encounter difficulties navigating and making choices in increasingly complex markets for products and services. Further, behavioural economics and social psychology suggest individuals often depart from “rational” decision-making processes.

For markets to facilitate genuinely competitive pressures, consumers need to be empowered to make genuinely informed choices, comprehending the options presented to them and being enabled to act on this information.

In April 2018, CPRC released Five Preconditions of Effective Consumer Engagement – a conceptual framework, which explores the necessary conditions to facilitate consumer participation in markets, and demand-side settings required by policymakers and regulators to ensure markets are effective in delivering positive consumer outcomes.

CPRC is building on this research, exploring initiatives which better support consumer decision-making processes through:

• Improving information disclosure to enable fair comparison of products and services;
• Effective consumer and community consultation strategies to support market engagement – with a focus on disengaged and vulnerable consumers; and,
• Investigating and trialling behavioural interventions to evaluate the potential benefits or harm for consumers.