On 15 March 1962, President John F. Kennedy read his famous 'Special Message on Protecting Consumer Interest' to the American Congress. The 50 year anniversary of this event will, among other things, be celebrated with a conference in Utrecht on 'world consumer day', 15 March 2012.
2012 also marks the 50th birthday of the European consumer organisation BEUC. An overview of BEUC's achievements over the years can be found on the special website dedicated to this anniversary. BEUC announces that it will present its 2020 consumer strategy in May of this year.
Furthermore, BEUC's anniversary website draws attention to a particular consumer issue every month - February's 'topic of the month' is, indeed very topically, data protection.