Consumers’ perceptions of consumer rights in Jordan

This paper aims to examine consumers’ attitudes toward marketing practices and consumer rights in Jordan, based on an empirical investigation of university students. The study refers to John Kennedy’s bill of four consumer rights: the Right to Safety, the Right to be Informed, the Right to Choose and the Right to be Heard.

This paper depends on a convenience sample of 381 students, using a drop-off method, with a structured, self-administered questionnaire to measure consumer attitudes regarding the four basic consumer rights, as listed above, utilizing a five-point Likert scale measure.

The overall findings show that the current consumers’ attitudes toward marketing practices related to protection of consumer rights is not highly favorable, indicating that more work will be needed for improvement, with more attention to consumers’ Right to be Heard. The study urged marketers and public policymakers in Jordan to reconsider the way consumer rights were being approached by marketing practitioners.

The study is unique by virtue of its nature, scope and way of empirical investigation, as it explores the status of perceived consumer rights for the first time in Jordan, drawing on John Kennedy’ model. The study calls upon marketers and public policymakers to pay more attention to the current status of consumer rights, with implications for better business strategies and more useful legislations pertaining to consumer protection.