PRODUCT SAFETY AND CONSUMER PROTECTION/A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN THE UK AND THE JORDANIAN REGULATORY SYSTEM.
Dr Husam Botosh

ABSTRACT.
 
The aim of this article is to find an answer to the following questions: Does self-regulation promote the success of the product safety regulations? If yes, to what extent does self-regulation help in the product safety regime in the United Kingdom as well as in Jordan? Are there other factors which contribute to success of the product safety regulations?

 The article is divided into seven main sections. Section one will briefly describe the history of the origin of the product safety legislation in the UK and in Jordan. Section two, part one will look at the development of the safety standards legislation before 1994. Some of the problems and subsequent alterations faced in the development of the regulations will also be addressed as the legislation is evaluated in this section. The second part of section two, will cover the general product safety regulations after 1994 as well as addressing any relevant issues that arise from the Jordanian legislation. The current general safety regulation (GSR) will also be discussed in this section. Section three is divided into three subsections where each subsection will compare the BSI, the JQM and the CE quality marks of high standard.

 The whole of section four will address the IPCCP program in Jordan and will evaluate how it is implemented into Jordanian industries as well as present some of the problems that have been identified in the regulations. Section five will evaluate and then approach the subject of self-regulation by addressing the advantages of utilising such a system, followed by analysing the problem in fixing a product safety standard as determined by the government. This section will conclude by determining whether self-regulation can promote the success of the product safety regulations or not, both in the UK and in Jordan. And finally, section six will approach other factors which contribute to the success of the product safety regulations in the UK and whether the same is applicable to Jordan or not. Factors including the inclusion of the consumer’s voice in standard setting and the problems in enforcing product safety standards are a couple of the issues that will be covered in this particular section.