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Abstract

The 9th United Nations Conference on Competition and Consumer Protection of 2025 advanced international consumer protection law by extending its scope. The Product Safety Resolution adopted at the Geneva-based conference is the first binding global resolution on product safety. Addressing the wide scope of problems associated with the emergence of more complex global and online markets, the Resolution presents a set of legal criteria to ensure the safety of goods, liability of defaulting manufacturers, rights of consumers, and the laying out of appropriate procedures. This paper presents a critical evaluation of the normative context of the Resolution and its variation strategies, which are used in national settings. Examining the cases of India, Brazil, South Africa, and Thailand, it identifies long-standing bottlenecks, such as lack of institutional capacity, fragmentation of regulations, invisibility of the informal sector, unequal economic burdens, and the tension between high safety standards and competitiveness in trade among developing countries. The paper conducts a comparative institutional review, capacity analysis, and feasibility analysis and emphasises the need for more gradual pragmatic strategies through which legal reform and capacity building, technology groups, and international partnerships can be instituted. Some examples of such enablers are regional collaboration, which can be embodied by possible SAARC programmes spearheaded by India, and regulatory innovations that are adaptive, including capacity twinning and focused funding programmes. The article emphasizes the importance of the fact that success is determined not by aspirational commitments but political will, the allocation of resources, and specific solutions to vulnerable consumers and informal markets. The 9th UN Conference framework provides a revolutionary roadmap to harmonised, inclusive global consumer product safety if it is implemented successfully via long-term worldwide support and national strategies.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.55496/XMNL7413

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