ISO/COPOLCO - Committee on consumer policy

This document provides guidance on how to meet the needs of consumers in the development of service standards. This document can be used by anyone involved in the development of service standards and can be applied to any service. This document is relevant to the full range of services, whether or not a formal contract is entered into or purchase price paid. It also has relevance for public or charitable services, e.g. education, health and care provision, where a financial transaction has not necessarily taken place. This document relates to the provision of services and therefore does not include specific reference to management systems or professional competence requirements.

This document contains principles and requirements for developing and declaring ethical claims and for providing supporting information, where specific standards have not been developed, or to supplement existing standards. This document is intended for use by all types of organizations and is applicable to all types of ethical claims relating to a product, process, service or organization. This document can also be used by those seeking a better understanding of ethical claims and their use. This document can support the development of programmes for aspect-specific and sector-specific ethical claims.

This document provides general recommendations to be taken into consideration when determining the most suitable type of packaging for products intended for consumers. The functions that packaging can perform include, but are not limited to, containment, protection, handling, transport, storage, convenience, information and presentation. This document also considers the sustainable use of resources covering optimization, reuse and recovery of packaging. This document provides guidance to: — product designers, manufacturers and others engaged in the process of making decisions concerning packaging; — those drafting standards to meet the packaging needs and requirements of consumers as prospective purchasers of products; — committees preparing standards for consumer products or services; — regulators. This document is not applicable to bulk packaging, which is solely intended to protect products in bulk when being transported between manufacturers and retailers, and it is not intended for industrial packaging.

ISO/IEC Guide 14:2018 provides guidance on the provision of information concerning products and their related services intended for consumers. It outlines general principles and recommendations for content, methods, formats and designs enabling consumers to compare and choose consumer products and their related services prior to purchase.

ISO/IEC Guide 46:2017 establishes general principles for the conduct of comparative testing of products and services for the information of consumers. It does not cover anti-counterfeiting or conformity assessment.

ISO/IEC Guide 50:2014 provides guidance to experts who develop and revise standards, specifications and similar publications. It aims to address potential sources of bodily harm to children from products that they use, or with which they are likely to come into contact, even if not specifically intended for children. ISO/IEC Guide 50:2014 does not provide guidance on the prevention of intentional harm (e.g. child abuse) or non-physical forms of harm, such as psychological harm (e.g. intimidation). ISO/IEC Guide 50:2014 does not address the economic consequences of the above.

ISO/IEC Guide 51:2014 provides requirements and recommendations for the drafters of standards for the inclusion of safety aspects in standards. ISO/IEC Guide 51:2014 is applicable to any safety aspect related to people, property or the environment, or to a combination of these.

ISO/IEC Guide 37:2012 establishes principles and gives recommendations on the design and formulation of instructions for use of products by consumers. ISO/IEC Guide 37:2012 is intended to be used by the following: committees preparing standards for consumer products; product designers, manufacturers, technical writers or other people engaged in the work of conceiving and drafting such instructions; importers, regulators, inspection bodies and researchers. The principles and detailed recommendations in ISO/IEC Guide 37:2012 are intended to be applied in combination with the specific requirements on instructions for use specified in standards for particular products or groups of products. Some model formats and wordings are suggested for inclusion in standards. ISO/IEC Guide 37:2012 contains some practical recommendations and a proposed methodology for assessment, in order to help establish common criteria for the assessment of the quality of instructions for use. Annexes A and B provide checklists to help principal target groups using ISO/IEC Guide 37:2012.

ISO/IEC Guide 74:2004 gives procedures for the development of graphical symbols for public information, use in safety signs and product safety labels, and use on equipment and products. Such graphical symbols can be included in consumer documentation. ISO/IEC Guide 74:2004 does not cover road traffic signs and graphical symbols for use in technical documentation. Rules for the design of graphical symbols are given in International Standards. ISO/IEC Guide 74:2004 brings together information on relevant international reference documents and standards to assist technical committees and designers to follow best practice when considering the need for a new graphical symbol. IMPORTANT -- The colours represented in the electronic file of ISO/IEC Guide 74:2004 can be neither viewed on screen nor printed as true representations. Although the copies of ISO/IEC Guide 74:2004 printed by ISO have been produced to correspond (with an acceptable tolerance as judged by the naked eye) to the requirements of ISO 3864-1, it is not intended that these printed copies be used for colour matching. Instead, consult ISO 3864-1 which provides colorimetric and photometric properties together with, as a guideline, references from colour order systems.

ISO/IEC Guide 76:2008 provides general guidance on the issues to be considered in standards for services. On the basis of this guidance, detailed standards can be prepared for any service. ISO/IEC Guide 76:2008 provides a checklist which can be used by consumer representatives and others participating in the process of standards development. Use of the checklist enables full consideration to be given to all matters of consumer interest, including the needs of children, older persons, persons with disabilities and those from different ethnic and cultural heritages. ISO/IEC Guide 76:2008 is relevant to the full range of services, whether or not a formal contract is entered into or purchase price paid, but it also has relevance for public or charitable services in which there is a consumer, a user or a participant, but not necessarily a purchase, e.g. education, health and care provision.

ISO/IEC Guide 41:2003 gives the general recommendations to be taken into consideration when determining the most suitable type of packaging to be used at the point of sale to protect goods. It is not applicable to packaging solely intended to protect goods in bulk when being transported between manufacturers and retailers. The objectives of ISO/IEC Guide 41:2003 are to maximize the direct and indirect benefits to purchasers of goods and services by: eliminating unnecessary packaging so as to reduce the price of goods and the amount of waste; ensuring that goods reach consumers in the condition intended by the manufacturer; protecting consumers from any potentially harmful effects of the packaging or its contents; enabling consumers to store the goods and their packaging appropriately and to keep, dispose of, or recycle them, in a manner that minimizes their environmental impact.

ISO/IEC Guide 14:2003 is applicable to the provision of information concerning products and services before purchase. It outlines general principles and recommendations for contents, methods, formats and design such that the information will enable consumers to compare and choose products or services. Furthermore, ISO/IEC Guide 14:2003 recommends general rules for the creation and implementation of purchase information systems and purchase information bodies. It is addressed to the following: committees preparing standards for consumer products or services; product designers, manufacturers, technical writers or others engaged in the work of drafting such information, and, in particular, those who are members of purchase information bodies; other bodies such as enforcement agencies or consumer ombudsmen. ISO/IEC Guide 14:2003 does not deal with conformity assessment or instructions for use. It does not give detailed guidance on information that is provided verbally or electronically.

Establishes the design and formulation of instructions for use of products of consumer interest. The principles and detailed recommendations should apply in combination with the specific requirements on instructions for use laid down in standards for specific products or group of products. Assessment of the quality of instructions for use should follow common criteria proposed in this guide.

The principles are applicable to consumer products, services and a combination of both. They may usefully be followed by bodies and associations which conduct comparative testing programmes. The purpose of this Guide is to enable meaningful test results and information to be presented in a way which will help consumers and others to make an informed choice suitable to their own needs. The notes offer some but not all the means of applying the principles.

Packaging is a product of consumer interest, the cost of which is borne indirectly by the consumer. Standardization of packaging should, therefore, address itself to such factors as safety, health, fitness of purpose, comfort and reliability, as well as such general needs as protection of the environment and energy conservation. When drafting a standard relating to packaging, the requirements set out in this Guide in the order of priority should be taken into consideration.

This Guide establishes certain basic principles for the functioning of a system of product information. It concerns those cases where the information is based in general on standards approved or recognized by ISO, IEC or the national standards body, and is one of a series dealing with various aspects of consumer information, including comparative testing and marks of conformity with standards.