KEPKA is a non-governmental, non-profit, independent consumers' organization.
The establishment of KEPKA, in 1982, was exclusively a private initiative, due to a strong concern on the lack of a concrete consumers' protection policy, in Greece and the difference between the level of protection in Greece and that of the other Member States of the EU. This concern was shared among all the founding members. All these 35 years, we have been trying to raise consumers’ conscience, in Greece and protect consumers’ rights.
Our main activities are raising consumers' conscience in Greece and protecting consumers' rights, informing consumers on products, services, economic interests, health, nutrition, environmental problems, human rights, ethics and urging the Greek Government, the European Commission and the European Parliament to develop a consumer policy towards the improvement of the quality of the consumers' and citizens' lives.
KEPKA has neither commercial activities nor any income coming from political parties, organizations or enterprises. The members' contribution (annual subscription), governmental and EU grants are the only financial sources of the organization.
KEPKA is administered by a 9-member board. Its members are elected by the members of KEPKA, through general voting, every three years. All members of the Board are volunteers, they do not get paid by KEPKA, they devote their free time to our organization. KEPKA is represented by the President and the General Secretary.
KEPKA represents consumers at local level, at the Amicable Dispute Resolution Committees of 6 Municipalities of Northern Greece, the Amicable Dispute Resolution Committee of the Urban Transport Organization of Thessaloniki and the Consultation Committee of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. At national level, KEPKA represents consumers at the National Consumer and Market Council, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee for the Certification of Consumers’ Organizations and the National Committee of Nutrition. KEPKA is a member of Consumers’ International (C.I.), of the European Consumers’ Organization (B.E.U.C.), of European Organization for Standardization (ANEC), of Transatlantic Consumers’ Dialogue (T.A.C.D.), of the informal Federation of Greek Consumers Organizations (Fe.Gre.Co.) and at the NetCompetition Alliance. From 2004 to 2007, our President was the Coordinator of the National Consumer Council, which is a committee advisory to the Ministry of Development. Since February of 2008, the President of KEPKA is a member of the Executive Committee of the Consumer and Market Council. Since September 2010 she is member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), and since November 2010 she is Vice President of Single Market Observatory. Since February 2012, the President of KEPKA is Alternate Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Since June 2013, the President is Member of the Executive Committee of Economic and Social Council of Greece. KEPKA represents greek consumers at various other National, European and International Organizations and Institutions.
We have established organizations in eight other greek cities and we have formed an informal federation (FE.GRE.CO), in order to better represent, consumers at local level.
