Foreign experience in consumer market management in conditions of socio-economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused not only the global crisis but also substantial shifts in the structure and ways of goods consumption and consumer behavior. To save the lives of citizens and reduce the burden on the medical system, the countries individually imposed quarantine restrictions, closed the borders for the movement in and out, or banned the export of some commodity groups. The research aims to analyze the foreign experience in using the methods of public management of the consumer market in conditions of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The article offers the analysis of measures the countries have introduced to battle the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic to detect anti-crisis methods of consumer market management. Current scientific and practical studies on the minimization of the pandemic’s impact on the population are processed. Since there are numerous methods of public management of consumer markets, the main of them are detected and characterized: administrative, legal, direct, and indirect. The research of foreign practices in the activity in the consumption domain and their impact on the reduction of negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic has helped to determine one of the major components of anti-crisis management of consumer markets, namely the balanced system of consumer rights protection. The article argues that timely adoption of a range of anti-crisis regulations intended to minimize the threats of the pandemic allows consumers to sense the assistance from the state resulting in financial compensation for the residents that have been most affected and have lost their jobs. It is worth mentioning that timely developed procedures and standards of goods production and realization, as well as services provision, by the experts in consumer rights protection have allowed avoiding more substantial economic losses and protecting economically and socially vulnerable categories of the population. The article proves that due to reforms, the EU secures the functioning of “green lines” – the supply corridors for the support of goods supply chains, and assists food producers, acknowledging their outstanding role in the society, etc.