Consumer protection awareness is a vital civic skill. With its new video, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) wishes to educate consumers on basic issues related to consumer protection and provide advice on consumer issues. While the video has been made with immigrant audiences in mind, it also contains advice for all consumers.
In addition to Finnish and Swedish, the video is available in the languages spoken by the largest immigrant groups in Finland: English, Russian, Arabic, Somali, Farsi, Turkish and Kurdish.
“With this video, we wanted to help immigrant groups in particular to become more aware of their rights and duties as consumers. If you are an active consumer and you are aware of the basic matters concerning consumer protection, you can avoid a great deal of headaches,” notes Finnish Consumer Ombudsman Katri Väänänen.
The animated video features clear narration and expressions that are easy to follow. This makes it suitable for many types of consumer groups, such as school-aged children, the elderly and all those who wish to improve their skills as consumers.
What information does the video contain? For example, the video explains that one should always be alert when making a purchase, as a sale is always an agreement. Consumers should compare products before making their decisions, and they should not believe every advertising slogan they hear. The video encourages consumers to submit a complaint to any company that sells them a faulty good or service, and, if necessary, to get in touch with the Consumer Advisory Services. In addition, the video provides advice on how to arrange a payment plan if you do not have enough money to pay your bills on time