The Single Market shows a strong asymmetry in the relationship between consumers and businesses. The current context is marked by limited awareness of consumer rights, a weak and underdeveloped culture of complaint, and the proliferation of unfair commercial practices, both online and offline. The groups most affected by these practices—especially online—are primarily young people.
The Consumer (Re)generation project (CoRe) aims to provide citizens with knowledge and skills to make informed and responsible decisions, protect their rights, know how to navigate in the complexity of the modern market.
This project has received funding from the Single Market Programme, the EU funding programme which finances activities supporting a well-functioning, sustainable internal market.
Specific Objectives
- Increasing knowledge and skills in young consumers (minors) regarding their rights, protections and responsibilities to make more responsible and safe choices in online and in-store purchases, through an educational path designed with a focus on the areas where they are most vulnerable:
- unfair commercial practices and how to protect oneself from them;
- product safety and combating counterfeiting.
- Increasing knowledge of consumer rights, responsibilities and protection tools, among an adult audience, with a focus on online and in-store purchases, through a process of informal consumer education, conveyed both by young people involved in consumer education and through a digital information campaign.
- Initiate a network of European stakeholders in order to to promote dialogue on the importance of education and training on consumer rights.
Activities
The project is structured around three main pillars:
- Educational program for young people
An educational program will be launched for youth aged 12 to 16, conducted within schools by specially trained teachers using an educational KIT on consumer rights. The program also includes a classroom-based idea contest involving the creation of creative messages. At the end of the program, based on all classroom contributions, the Young Consumers’ Manifesto will be created. Participants in the educational program will also lead a peer-to-peer information campaign to promote consumer rights among their peers and within their communities.
- Engaging adults
The project involves adults (families) in the educational process by transforming young people into "consumer rights ambassadors” within their families and communities. This approach emphasizes the importance of a multi-generational education and awareness process that extends beyond the school environment. At the end of the training, a digital awareness campaign will be launched targeting the adult public, based on the project’s main outputs.
- European networking
A network of European stakeholders will be activated to contribute to the design of the educational tools developed within the project. More broadly, this network will be engaged in discussions on the importance of consumer rights education, leading to the development of a position paper to be publicly presented at a final event in Brussels.
Download the educational kit for teachers on consumer rights
Project ID: 101196578 – CoRe – SMP-CONS-2024-EDU
Duration: May 2025 – October 2026
Contact:
CoRe is an indipendent project by Cittadinanzattiva
in partnership with
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
with the support of
