We have all suffered the inconvenience of sitting on a train or bus or in the library and being distracted by the whirring sound of someone’s pop favourites blasting out of their earpieces. Quite apart form the potential long term damage to their own health, the externalities of inconsiderate people oblivious to those around them are not inconsiderable! The EU is considering intervening to set a maximum noise default setting on new portable music players.

They want manufacturers of digital music players to introduce these standards voluntarily before legislation is prompted - this is an interesting example not just of externalities but also information failure among predomianantly younger people about the long term impact of playing loud music through ear pieces for hours at a stretch.

According to EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

“The evidence is that particularly young people - who are listening to music at high volumes sometimes for hours each week - have no idea they can be putting their hearing at risk. It can take years for the hearing damage to show, and then it is simply too late.”

What other interventions might be possible as alternatives? Beware the law of unintended consequences - how would consumers who want to max the volume get around such limits?