Consumer Focus call for public opinions

Consumer Focus wants members of the public to contribute ideas for schemes that could ultimately get consumers better deals.

The national consumer watchdog said its new online initiative, Consumer Focus Labs would draw on fresh ideas from people in order to develop tools or effective campaigns. It hopes these could help people get fairer deals from companies, save them money or keep them informed about products or issues important to them.

Consumer Focus is a new organisation, created by the merger of Energywatch, Postwatch and the National Consumer Council (including the Scottish and Welsh Consumer Councils) in October last year.

It hopes that by involving the public directly in the new project it will bring together those with a common concern or complaint, and that schemes or campaigns could be developed that would make any collaborative legal actions stronger or pressure groups more effective.

For example, it could help people who would like to band together to launch a legal action against a company or organisation. Currently the legal framework in the UK does not allow for US-style class-action lawsuits, but consumers can start what are called collective actions.

However, all claimants in a collective claim have to sign up and be named at the outset of the case – people cannot opt in at a later date.

Ed Mayo, chief executive of Consumer Focus, said: "This is an age of innovation for consumers online. Consumer Focus Labs is a collaborative and experimental programme designed to turn some of the best ideas into practical ways to help consumers get a fair deal."