Consumer Protection in Digital Age

Internet users and online trading has flourished in the past few years. Particularly in Oman the penetration of internet is around 71% as compared to the world population being 40%. The digi-tal economy has abundant to offer to the consumers. Digitization has provided easy access, large variety to choose, convenient payment, improved services and shopping at your convenience any time, due to the rapid growth in internet, smart phone and other technologies but along the growth path it also brings in challenges related to consumer protection. In Oman there exists a strong Consumer Protection Act. With all this, still the challenge today is to build a digital world consumers can trust. The consumers internationally have some basic rights but the question is whether they are aware about it? An aware consumer is better protected. The companies who work for consumer awareness not only build trust of the consumers but also develop a strong brand equity leading to increased business. This paper will investigate the awareness among the consumers regarding their rights and duties and suggest strategies for creating awareness. This paper will be useful not only for the consum-ers at large but for the policy makers, new entrants in trading business, advertisers, existing busi-ness and government.