Demographic ageing is accelerating. Population in the EU-27> 65 years will be 103 million and > 80 years will be 30 million in year 2020 (DG ECFIN/Ageing Report 2012). Risk of poverty grows with older age and is much higher among women. Risks of social exclusion and citizens unable to afford essential goods and service are heightened by population ageing, increasingly market’s complexity and because some people may neither have the opportunity nor the ability to master the digital environment. The current context may also exacerbate the disadvantaged situation of vulnerable consumers, such as Elder Persons, who face difficulties in accessing and understanding information and in finding appropriate products and services on the market (European Consumer Agenda, 2012)

Collaborative consumption (CC) is growing around the world, through the use of technological networks to do more with less, through hiring, lending, exchanging, bartering, or sharing products on a previously unimaginable scale. Proliferation of CC Platforms has boosted CC, with more than half of all EU citizens knowing about the collaborative economy and one person in six is already using it (Eurobarometer, 2016).

CC represents an innovative complement to a production economy in the form of a use-based economy offering economic, social and environmental benefits and a way out of the economic and financial crisis (Collaborative or participatory consumption: a sustainable model for the 21st century. European Economic and Social Committee. 2014). CC promotes cooperative values and solidarity in practice, leading to more environmentally friendly behavior in terms of the life cycles of the goods that people use. CC also provides an opportunity for the most vulnerable groups, experiencing economic hardship (Collaborative or participatory consumption: a sustainable model for the 21st century. European Economic and Social Committee. 2014)

COL-SUMERS is launched with the main objective of increasing the competences (attitudes, skills, knowledge) of Elder Persons (>60 years old) about how to exploit Collaborative Consumption (CC) through an innovative training program.