Shirish Deshpande
Chairman, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat
Biography
Shirish Deshpande is Chairman of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP), the largest voluntary consumer organization from India. Consumer Laws is his specialization and he has filed several cases in Consumer Courts, High Court and Supreme Court of India for protecting consumer interest. He filed cases against Oil Companies and Gas Distributors under Consumer Protection Act for causing deaths of consumers due to defective LPG Cylinders and was successful in securing compensation for the families of victims.
Mr Deshpande filed class action case against a leading Scooter manufacturer and secured refund of scooter deposits for more than 400,000 consumers. He contributed to strengthening the Consumer Protection Act in India.
Mr Deshpande was also instrumental in creating Conciliation mechanism to amicably resolve disputes of home-buyers. He himself is a trained Mediator and Conciliator.
He was on the Council of Consumers International from 2011 to 2015. During this tenure he played important role in review & revision of UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP). He played a leading role in creating an oversight mechanism at UNCTAD for implementation of UNGCP all over the world.
Speaker session
New technology products: risks 3.0
In recent years, more and more connected and other new technology products have become part of consumers’ households and lives. While these innovative products offer many opportunities to consumers, they can also pose serious risks to their physical and mental health and safety. Are consumers sufficiently protected against these new risks? Does the industry adequately identify and mitigate these risks before releasing products on the market? How can regulators build and deepen capacities to tackle these new challenges?
Speakers:
- Leanda Barrington-Leach - Head of EU Affairs, 5Rights
- Raphaël de Cormis - Vice-President, Thales Digital Factory
- Birgitta Dresp-Langley, PhD - Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
- Rod Freeman - Legal Expert, Cooley LLP
- Treye Thomas, PhD - Program Manager, Chemicals Nanotechnology and Emerging Materials, S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
Birgitta Dresp-Langley, PhD
Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Biography
Speaker session
New technology products: risks 3.0
In recent years, more and more connected and other new technology products have become part of consumers’ households and lives. While these innovative products offer many opportunities to consumers, they can also pose serious risks to their physical and mental health and safety. Are consumers sufficiently protected against these new risks? Does the industry adequately identify and mitigate these risks before releasing products on the market? How can regulators build and deepen capacities to tackle these new challenges?
Speakers:
- Leanda Barrington-Leach - Head of EU Affairs, 5Rights
- Raphaël de Cormis - Vice-President, Thales Digital Factory
- Birgitta Dresp-Langley, PhD - Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
- Rod Freeman - Legal Expert, Cooley LLP
- Treye Thomas, PhD - Program Manager, Chemicals Nanotechnology and Emerging Materials, S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
Rebekka Endler
Journalist
Biography
Rebekka Endler (*1984) is a freelance journalist, podcaster and book author from Cologne, Germany. Her first book, Das Patriarchat der Dinge (The Patriarchy of Things), about patriarchal everyday design, was published in Germany in 2021. It shows how so many aspects of our lives revolve around design made to fit men - or more specifically the average cis white male - with consequences encompassing everything from mild discomfort to death. The book was critically well received and is now being translated and published in several other countries.
Showing how systems of oppression affect the lives of people in regards to gender, class, race, sexuality is one of the main focal points of her work. She aims to make academic knowledge and expertise accessible to all people and to find ways to connect their experiences to research. Rebekka Endler currently holds a scholarship as a resident of the Tarabya Culture Academy in Istanbul, Turkey where she is researching and writing a book about the social mechanisms of patriarchy as well as a novel about a generally insecure woman.
Speaker session
New technology products: risks 3.0
In recent years, more and more connected and other new technology products have become part of consumers’ households and lives. While these innovative products offer many opportunities to consumers, they can also pose serious risks to their physical and mental health and safety. Are consumers sufficiently protected against these new risks? Does the industry adequately identify and mitigate these risks before releasing products on the market? How can regulators build and deepen capacities to tackle these new challenges?
Speakers:
- Leanda Barrington-Leach - Head of EU Affairs, 5Rights
- Raphaël de Cormis - Vice-President, Thales Digital Factory
- Birgitta Dresp-Langley, PhD - Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
- Rod Freeman - Legal Expert, Cooley LLP
- Treye Thomas, PhD - Program Manager, Chemicals Nanotechnology and Emerging Materials, S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)