The Georgian National Competition Agency, the National Bank of Georgia, the National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission of Georgia, the Communications Commission and the State Insurance Supervision Service of Georgia continue to hold the II International Conference on "Competition and Consumer Protection." The second day of the conference was opened with the session of the UNCTAD panel titled " Key Trends and Challenges of Consumer Protection in E-commerce”.

Teresa Moreira, UNCTAD's Head of competition and consumer policy direction, addressed the invited guests.She emphasized the importance of defending consumer rights and stated that it is necessary to share experiences between countries in this direction for the development of the field. Teresa Moreira spoke on the consumer protection initiatives implemented within the framework of UNCTAD's activities and presented at the session the international guidelines in this area.

"We are discussing very serious issues in today's session, which is important for the protection of consumer rights." The issues that exist in the sphere of electronic commerce, such as digital payments and cyber security, have proven to be highly relevant. Cooperation across countries in the sphere of consumer rights protection and experience sharing, in my opinion, is critical. "It's critical,"- Teresa Moreira stated.

By her own admission, raising consumer education is one of the key defensive elements in the e-commerce industry.

At the session held within the framework of the international conference, the leaders of the counterpart agencies of the National Competition Agency of Georgia in Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece and Azerbaijan spoke about the challenges in the e-commerce sector, ways to solve them and their own experiences in protecting consumer rights. Daniel Mankovski, Goda Aleksaite, Izabella Soboszlai, Hara Nikolopoulou and Elnur Bagirov presented their reports on the mentioned issues. They thanked the National Competition Agency of Georgia and its head, Irakli Lekvinadze, for the organization and active cooperation of the said conference and presented their country's experience in the field of consumer protection. The speakers identified the need for the business sector to take responsibility as one of the necessary factors for the protection of consumer rights.

The leaders of the Georgian National Competition Agency’s counterpart agencies of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece, and Azerbaijan spoke about the challenges in the e-commerce sector, ways to solve them, and their own experiences in protecting consumer rights at a session held within the framework of the international conference.Daniel Mańkowski, Goda Aleksaite, Izabella Szoboszlai, Hara Nikolopoulou, and Elnur Shamistan oghlu Baghirov delivered reports on the aforementioned topics. They congratulated the Georgian National Competition Agency and its Chairman, Irakli Lekvinadze, for organizing and actively participating in the stated conference, and they shared their country's experience in the sphere of consumer protection.  One of the necessary criteria for the protection of consumer rights, according to the speakers, is for the business sector to take responsibility.

We would like to remind you that the international conference "Competition and Consumer Protection" organized by Georgia's five regulatory bodies, in which a delegation of up to 20 countries and the first person in the competition and consumer sector from 10 different countries, government and parliamentary members, local and international experts, public and regulatory bodies, academia, and business sector representatives are participating, november 16 was its opening day, and November 18 is its closing date.