The Government is collaborating with businesses across the financial services, utilities and telecoms industries to give consumers easy access to their digital data, under a new scheme dubbed “midata”.
Consumer minister Ed Davey is this week set to unveil the initiative, designed to help people switch products and organisations more easily and save money. He claimed it will “give citizens a helping hand in the face of tight household budgets and rising world prices”.
Davey added: “At the moment, it’s possible to access this data legally, but it’s difficult and time-consuming and it’s often not in an electronic format. We hope this will speed up this process. It represents a real opportunity for companies to say: ‘Look, if we get involved in this early we can really empower our customers.’ The idea is that those who do not get involved become the companies consumers do not want to deal with.”
The self-regulatory initiative aims to encourage collective purchasing, and increase support for vulnerable customers. Davey added: “How about councils working with insurers to develop low-cost products they can sell in bulk to collective purchasers? That’s a win-win for everybody.”
Online price comparison websites will be able to sign up to a new quality mark if they can demonstrate “clear and transparent” consumer comments, while the OFT will police feedback.
The Government is also planning to beef up consumer rights for people purchasing goods or services online, to make it easier and cheaper to get redress. It has asked Citizens Advice and Consumer Focus to conduct a joint review on how to empower “very vulnerable consumers”.
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