The OECD has adopted a new basket methodology for benchmarking wireless broadband prices. It adds to the existing baskets for voice, leased lines and fixed broadband services and reflects the increasing importance of wireless broadband for laptops, tablets and smartphones.

This report provides background on e-book markets and examines various policy issues. These include differing tax rates in countries between physical books and e-books, consumer lock-in to specific platforms, limitations on how users can read and share their purchased content, and a lack of transparency about how data on their reading habits is used.

While consumer demand for digital goods has increased rapidly in recent years, a range of challenges undermine confidence in the market and require policy attention.

This guidance addresses a number of key issues in the emerging mobile and online payment area, including the need to establish minimum levels of consumer protection across payment mechanisms, enhanced privacy and child protection, and standards for transparent and accessible information disclosures.

The report notes that industry self-regulation (ISR) can play an important role in addressing consumer issues, particularly when business codes of conduct and standards are involved. It draws on 23 case studies covering notably advertising, financial services, telecommunications, video games and software applications (apps), toys, and direct selling.

In order to better understand the role and drivers of consumer trust in peer platform markets, the OECD’s Committee on Consumer Policy conducted an online survey of 10,000 consumers across 10 OECD member countries. This report discusses the findings of that survey.

More than 110 countries and jurisdictions have agreed to review two key concepts of the international tax system, responding to a mandate from the G20 Finance Ministers to work on the implications of digitalisation for taxation.

This report examines information on consumer protection enforcement authorities of OECD member and non-member countries, especially on the ability of these authorities to co-operate across borders. It is based on questionnaire responses from 31 countries, supplemented by additional research.

There is an argument that the IoT brings new challenges for product safety and that regulatory regimes will need to be adapted. However, others argue that although the products are new, the issues are not necessarily novel and existing regulations are sufficient. This report highlights some key issues that confront product safety policy makers in this important area.

Connected devices and appliances offer added convenience but also bring potential risks such as data privacy and cybersecurity threats, limitations on interoperability, complex supply chains and liability regimes, and product safety. Developing effective responses to the consumer protection issues that arise from the "smart home" will be an ongoing challenge.

Despite the benefits and convenience of e-commerce, the ease and speed with which consumers can engage in online transactions – at anytime, anywhere, and in particular across borders – may create situations that are unfamiliar to them and put their interests at risk. This toolkit provides a set of principles and practices for protecting digital consumers and enhancing trust in e-commerce.

Promoting responsible business conduct in the financial sector is vital to building a sustainable global economy. This paper will help institutional investors implement the due diligence recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in order to prevent or address adverse impacts related to human and labour rights, the environment, and corruption in their investment portfolios.

‌07/09/2017 - Flooding is one of the most common, wide-reaching and destructive natural perils, affecting on average about 250 million people around the world each year. OECD work on the financial management of flood risk has identified a number of ways that policy makers can improve the way they manage the financial implications of floods.

26-27 November 2018, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic. The conference will provide a forum to discuss best practices on developing financial education and consumer protection in supporting financial inclusion in Lao P.D.R and other Southeast Asian countries.

The tax burden in Luxembourg increased by 0.8 percentage points from 38.5% to 39.3% in 2013. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 33.7% to 34.1%. Luxembourg’s standard VAT rate is 15%, which is below the OECD average. The average VAT/GST standard rate in the OECD was 19.1% on 1 January 2014.

Iceland must balance growth in power and tourism industries with nature conservation, OECD says Iceland has one of the world’s most pristine natural environments and its glaciers, volcanoes and hot underground springs bring major economic benefits via renewable energy and tourism.

For many years one of the predominant conventional wisdoms in both business and policymaking circles was that cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions necessitates a sacrifice in economic growth.

Tackling climate change may be costly, but not tackling it will cost even more. And the longer we wait to act, the more our environment, our health and our economies will be damaged. Find out more about the likely impacts of rising GHG concentrations on global temperature, and how that will affect all of us.

The consequences of degradation of environmental quality as well as the consequences of environmental policies are typically unevenly distributed. In general, poorer countries and lower income households are more severely affected by environmental degradation and at the same time have less capacity to adapt.

This report provides an analysis of how climate change damages may affect international trade in the coming decades and how international trade can help limit the costs of climate change. It analyses the impacts of climate change on trade considering both direct effects on infrastructure and transport routes and the indirect economic impacts resulting from changes in endowments and production.

The world’s consumption of raw materials is set to nearly double by 2060 as the global economy expands and living standards rise, placing twice the pressure on the environment that we are seeing today, according to a new OECD report.

Consumers only occasionally choose to buy sustainable products. At the same time these consumers say in surveys that sustainability is important to them, and that the government should promote sustainable consumption. This study takes a closer look at public support for sustainable consumption and the associated dilemmas, with the help of a behavioural economics experiment of group decisions.

For many years one of the predominant conventional wisdoms in both business and policymaking circles was that cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions necessitates a sacrifice in economic growth.

Constitutional...