International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network – ICPEN : the global network safeguarding consumers in more than 80 countries – InfoCons informs you !
International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network – ICPEN : the global network safeguarding consumers in more than 80 countries – InfoCons informs you !
Shopping no longer stops at the border. We order goods from platforms based in another country, book services from businesses on a different continent and pay, in a matter of seconds, merchants we will never meet in person. In a marketplace like this, protecting consumers can no longer be the task of a single national authority working on its own. This is exactly where the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN) comes in: a worldwide network of consumer protection authorities that join forces against unfair commercial practices and cross-border fraud.
A global network for a borderless marketplace
ICPEN is a membership organisation made up of public authorities responsible for consumer protection and for enforcing fair-trading rules across the globe. Its central purpose is to give these authorities a common framework in which they stay in regular contact, exchange information and coordinate their action whenever a consumer problem spills beyond the borders of a single country.
By encouraging cooperation between agencies, the network helps each member authority achieve a greater impact through its own consumer protection policies, laws and regulations. Put simply, ICPEN makes it far harder for a dishonest trader to exploit the fact that the victims and the regulators happen to sit in different jurisdictions.
From a Danish idea to a worldwide network
The story begins in 1991, when Denmark’s Consumer Ombudsman first floated the idea of an informal network bringing together consumer authorities involved in the enforcement of fair-trading practices. The aim was to find ways of cooperating on consumer problems linked to cross-border transactions — for both goods and services — and to ensure a steady exchange of information between participants.
A year later, in 1992, at a meeting hosted in London by the United Kingdom’s then Office of Fair Trading, participants agreed on a Memorandum on the Establishment and Operation of the network. This formally created what was known at the time as the International Marketing Supervision Network (IMSN). At a meeting held in Sydney in 2002, the network was renamed ICPEN to better reflect its growing focus on the practical enforcement of consumer law. The founding memorandum has since been amended several times, most recently in May 2025.
What the network sets out to do
ICPEN’s mission is stated plainly: to protect consumers worldwide by encouraging and facilitating practical action. The network aspires to be the recognised international body that promotes and supports consumer protection enforcement, including through an ever-growing level of cooperation between agencies.
To deliver on that mandate, the network relies on three core strategies:
- Coordinating and cooperating on consumer protection enforcement matters;
- Sharing information and intelligence on consumer protection trends and emerging risks;
- Sharing best practice on key consumer protection laws, enforcement powers and regulatory approaches.
It is worth stressing what ICPEN is not. It is not an international court, and it does not replace national authorities. Its role is that of a cooperation platform: rather than issuing penalties on behalf of member states, it makes those states more effective by giving them information, shared tools and a fast channel of communication between counterparts.
Members, partners and observers: who belongs
The network has grown steadily from a handful of founding authorities in 1992 into a truly global organisation. According to official figures (as of 3 July 2025), it brings together member and partner authorities representing more than 80 countries, alongside 7 observer authorities. In its own words, ICPEN describes itself as an organisation of consumer protection authorities from over 80 countries, “and growing”.
Participants fall into three categories, each with a distinct role:
- Members — the consumer protection and law-enforcement authorities of the participating jurisdictions; they form the core of the network and enjoy full access to its tools and products.
- Partners — jurisdictions or authorities cooperating with the network without (yet) holding full member status; recent partners include India, Indonesia, Mauritius, Montenegro and Paraguay.
- Observers — international organisations and specialised networks that take part in the network’s work without being national consumer authorities, such as the European Commission, the OECD, UNCTAD, the World Bank and the Global Privacy Enforcement Network.
Among the member authorities are some of the best-known regulators in the world, including the Federal Trade Commission (United States), the Competition and Markets Authority (United Kingdom) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, together with the consumer authorities of Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea and many others. This three-tier structure keeps the network flexible and open — both to states with highly developed consumer protection systems and to those only now building their institutional capacity.
A presidency that rotates every year
ICPEN operates under a presidency that rotates annually among its members. Each year a different national authority takes the lead, sets the priorities and organises the main meetings and projects. On 1 July 2026, the Presidency for the 2026–2027 term passed to the Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency.
The presidency is supported by an advisory group made up of the current, former and future presidents, together with nominated representatives from within the membership. These are chosen to ensure broad geographical representation and a rotating involvement of different members and partners — a mechanism that preserves continuity from one term to the next and prevents decision-making from concentrating in any single state.
A snapshot of recent ICPEN presidencies:
| Term | Country holding the Presidency (authority) |
| 2026 – 2027 | Georgia (Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency) |
| 2025 – 2026 | Dominican Republic (Pro Consumidor) |
| 2024 – 2025 | United States of America (Federal Trade Commission) |
| 2023 – 2024 | Poland (UOKiK) |
| 2022 – 2023 | Australia (ACCC) |
| 2021 – 2022 | Portugal (DGC) |
| 2020 – 2021 | Canada (Competition Bureau) |
Does ICPEN have a headquarters?
Unlike a conventional institution, ICPEN has no permanent central seat in the sense of a single fixed headquarters building. As an international network with a rotating presidency, its centre of gravity effectively shifts each year to the country holding the presidency — currently Georgia.
The network does, however, rest on a stable administrative backbone. Its official website — www.icpen.org — and the related secretariat functions are maintained by the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), providing a constant point of reference for members and the wider public alike. The annual meetings and conferences are hosted in turn by member states, underlining just how decentralised and genuinely global the network is.
Tools that turn cooperation into action
Beyond principles, ICPEN equips its members with practical working tools. The most important include:
- gov — an online portal where consumers can report cross-border complaints and learn how to resolve international disputes. The initiative brings together more than 35 consumer protection authorities, all of them ICPEN members, which gain access to the complaint data from their own country.
- The annual Intelligence Report — an analysis of emerging consumer protection trends and risks, helping authorities anticipate new forms of fraud.
- The Agency Effectiveness Mentorship Program — through which experienced authorities support the institutional development of newer members.
- Project work groups — themed teams tackling current issues, from misleading advertising and online fraud to the challenges raised by new digital payment methods.
Members also benefit from a secure members’ extranet, along with training and guidance materials — resources that strengthen each authority’s ability to respond quickly to threats against consumers.
Romania’s place in the network
Romania is part of ICPEN, represented by the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC), which joined as a member in 2023. Through this membership, the Romanian authority plugs into the international flow of information on unfair commercial practices and cross-border fraud, gaining access to the tools and the network of contacts shared by the other member authorities. At institutional level, this participation complements Romania’s broader alignment with international consumer protection standards — an effort to which non-governmental organisations in the field also contribute through their day-to-day work.
Why it matters for consumers — and for InfoCons
For the ordinary shopper, the existence of a network such as ICPEN means that a complaint about a trader in another country does not go unanswered simply because it crosses a border. Cooperation between authorities makes it possible to flag fraud schemes, dangerous products and misleading practices quickly as they move from one market to another.
As an organisation dedicated to consumer protection, InfoCons follows and promotes the international mechanisms that uphold consumer rights. Whether the subject is the European product-safety alert system, the cooperation networks between authorities, or the accurate information of the public, the goal is always the same: a consumer who is informed, protected and able to make good choices. ICPEN is one of the links in this global chain of protection, and understanding its role helps consumers see that, behind every cross-border purchase, there is a web of institutions working for their safety.
From a Danish idea in 1991 and a memorandum signed in London in 1992, ICPEN has grown into a global network uniting consumer protection authorities from more than 80 countries — structured around members, partners and observers, and led by a presidency that rotates every year. With no fixed central headquarters, but a solid backbone maintained by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, it delivers its mission through cooperation, information sharing and shared tools such as econsumer.gov. In an increasingly globalised economy, where commercial borders fade away, ICPEN is proof that consumer protection, too, must be international first.
Source: public ICPEN data, icpen.org. Produced by InfoCons – Communication Department.