| Hello, We at the Consumer Choice Center are excited to share this first comprehensive annual report with you. Download Annual Report 2019 |
| The year 2019 was definitely our best years so far. We were able to promote choice and evidence-based policies on four different continents and change policies and regulations towards more innovation and choice in several countries. We helped to preserve streaming and payTV in Brazil, made cannabis more accessible for consumers in Canada, promoted smarter alcohol regulation in the several US States, and showed the risks for consumers of 5G infrastructure providers that are de facto controlled by the Communist Party of China. We wrote several policy papers on innovative topics such as ‘The Consumer Case for Intellectual Property’, ‘The Return of Supersonic Passenger Travel’, and ‘The Gene Revolution: Make Britain a Biotech Bonanza’. Our indices on Europe’s most passenger-friendly airports and railway stations got hundreds of media hits and were even prominently featured in the annual reports of bluechip companies. Our reports also helped consumers to plan their trips and navigate airports and railway stations around Europe, choosing those more friendly and open for innovation. The current COVID-19 crisis shows how much the legacy model of civil society engagement is challenged by social distancing and self-isolation. Fortunately, we at the CCC have always had a large digital component in our campaign strategies. We have been a remote organization from the beginning on, and our daily work routine has not much changed. In late February, our web traffic began exploding as more and more people started staying home and reading up on policy suggestions on how to tackle this public health crisis. Right now. we see that more digitization, liberalization, and the sharing economy are usually the catalysts that enable our society to cope with all the restrictions imposed on us. We are happy to take on the fight to ensure smart rules such as the online ordering of alcohol, expansion of retail shopping hours, and fast-tracking of innovative medicines and devices, much beyond COVID-19. At the same time, we will fight against bad policies and proposals that are being considered or implemented in times of crisis: Some of them are ideas such as infringing on intellectual property rights, banning alcohol consumption, and limiting consumers’ freedom of movement. The next twelve months will be challenging but we as a team are very eager to fight for our core principles: consumer choice, unbiased evidence, and innovation. On behalf of the Consumer Choice Center Team, |
 Fred Roeder Managing Director Consumer Choice Center |