I recently spoke at a seminar organised by the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Malta and the Malta Law Academy of the Chamber of Advocates to commemorate World Consumer Rights Day. It was a most interesting experience as my task was to provide an economic perspective of consumer rights.

The theme for this year was ‘Making Digital Marketplaces Fairer’. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal had not yet broken out. So up to a certain extent, whoever thought of this theme definitely had foresight.

The focus of the seminar here in Malta was different in that it honed in on a diverse range of issues, including the protection of the consumer in a digital marketplace as well as the decisions of the arbiter for financial services set up in Malta, not so long ago.

When one considers what has happened globally in the last 12 months, one does certainly come to the conclusion that, despite all the nice words pronounced by leading companies about how much their love their customers, the latter have really not been served well.

The Volkswagen emissions scandal is probably one of the most serious ones. Volkswagen had intentionally programmed its diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing. So while testing was taking place, these cars met the required standards, but then emitted up to 40 times more harmful gases in real-world driving.

As if this was not enough, it waslater found out that Volkswagen were testing the effect of the diesel emission fumes from their cars on animals and human beings.

Also fairly recently, we had the news of Apple slowing down the performance of older iPhones, through a software update. Apple admitted to have started the practice a year ago, to compensate for battery degradation, rather than push people to upgrade their smartphones faster. Apple was forced to make an apology but left it unsigned. How is that for openness and talking to the customer?

Then we had the news this week of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook allegedly harvesting and using personal data. So far it has been said that the personal data was used to make direct messages at voters in the US presidential elections. Irrespective of what this personal data has been used for, what happened certainly does not bode well for consumers. These were the stories that have really made the headlines. On the other hand, the struggle to safeguard consumer rights continues every day. One starts to recognise that terminology like customer-centricity are nothing but fads that have a short life.

It is also recognised that businesses cannot always be relied upon to regulate themselves. This is why enforcement is of paramount importance. It is not enough to have legislation in place if it is not enforced effectively and fairly.

In effect it is indeed a pity that we are still stuck on the need to ensure that consumer rights are protected. This is just the minimum that businesses should seek to achieve. Best practice requires businesses to go beyond these minimum requirements and ensure that the service and goods provided are what the customer has been truly promised.

We frequently forget what Peter Drucker – recognised by many as the founder of modern management – said about the consumer. He said: “A company’s primary responsibility is to serve its customers… Profit is not the primary goal but rather an essential condition for the company’s continued existence”.

So the belief that the need to make a profit justifies any decision a business takes is based on a fallacy.