Press release

CMA awarded ICPEN presidency

The CMA will be taking up the presidency of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN) from July 2015 to June 2016.

Sonya Bragh

ICPEN is a network of governmental consumer protection authorities from around the world with members from 53 countries.

In taking up the presidency, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) aims to achieve positive outcomes for consumers across the world, building on the work of previous presidencies. The CMA aims to do this by:

  • having a strong focus on consumer enforcement
  • being intelligence-led and using collectively agreed prioritisation principles to take work forward which will have the biggest impact for consumers
  • delivering regular engagements and valuable work products and outcomes throughout the presidency
  • ensuring that ICPEN is able to continue to deliver work that will benefit members and consumers into the future.

Sonya Branch, Executive Director, Enforcement at the CMA and incoming President of ICPEN, said:

I am delighted that the CMA has been chosen to take up the next presidency of ICPEN. We hope that holding the presidency will benefit the CMA, and our national and international partners by offering the opportunity to share experience and expertise in developing our consumer protection and enforcement work. We hope to work collaboratively with consumer enforcement partners during the presidency to deliver positive outcomes for consumers across the world, and to build on the work of previous presidencies to continue to develop the network.

Gunnar Larsson, Consumer Ombudsman, Director General, Swedish Consumer Agency said:

On behalf of the entire ICPEN, I want to express our most sincere congratulations to the CMA on your assignment, as well as to extend our best wishes. We, as the incumbent presidency, offer our support and look forward to productive cooperation, ensuring a smooth transfer of the presidency, thus improving conditions for consumers worldwide.

Notes for editors

  1. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. From 1 April 2014 it took over the functions of the Competition Commission and the competition and certain consumer functions of the Office of Fair Trading, as amended by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.

  2. ICPEN is a network of governmental consumer protection authorities from around the world which has existed since 1992. It is made up of members from 53 countries and is expanding. It is headed by a presidency (a consumer enforcement body) which rotates every 12 months and is supported by an advisory group. For more information see the ICPEN website.

  3. The programme of work under the UK presidency will be led by Sonya Branch, Executive Director, Enforcement, who will take up the role of ICPEN President and Nisha Arora, Senior Director, Consumer, who will be the ICPEN Programme Director for the UK’s presidency.

  4. Enquiries should be directed to Siobhan.Allen@cma.gsi.gov.uk on 020 3738 6460 or Simon.Belgard@cma.gsi.gov.uk on 020 3738 6472.

  5. For more information see the CMA’s homepage, or follow us on Twitter@CMAgovuk,Flickr and LinkedIn. Sign up to our email alerts to receive updates on consumer protection cases.

Published 24 November 2014