The Impact of EU Norms and Policies on Consumer Protection Enforcement in Serbia

Pursuant to its 2008 Stabilization and Association Agreement governing the process of EU integration, Serbia is obliged to align its consumer protection standards (including those related to enforcement) with those of the EU. This article considers the overall approach to enforcement of consumer law in Serbia, focussing in particular on the extent to which EU enforcement principles have been successfully exported to Serbia and whether the goals of EU consumer policy have been achieved. It argues that the incorporation of EU norms has brought fundamental changes to Serbian enforcement mechanisms at a formal level, such as in relation to mediation processes as well as the introduction of injunctions for the protection of collective consumer interests. In practice, however, the impact of this incorporation is quite limited. A number of factors that restrict the practical effectiveness of the mediation processes and injunctions required by EU law are explored in the article, including weak sanctions, excessive reliance on poorly resourced consumer organizations, absence of a business culture of compliance or a sophisticated and determined consumer protection enforcement culture sufficiently grounded in expertise, as well as an overarching political, legislative, and institutional instability. These factors also undermine the general aim of EU policy to achieve effective consumer protection enforcement in the Serbian context.     

To B2C or Not to B2C. Some Reflections on the Regulation of Unfair Commercial Practices from a Polish Perspective

The article addresses the issue of whether EU consumer law and national implementing laws require the distinction between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) relationships. The Polish experiences with the implementation of the Unfair Commercial Practice Directive supply this well-known discussion with new arguments. In Poland, the near copy–paste implementation of this directive was done in nearly timely fashion. The outcome, however, is far from being nearly unproblematic, as the new act is disconnected from the old system in a simplistic way. Subsequently, the institutional choice for enforcement creates both an inconsistency with EU law and enforcement deficiencies that undermine the directive's policy aimed at achieving a high level of consumer protection. Notwithstanding the imperfect Polish law-making and law enforcement, a success story may have been unlikely in any event. While in its inception it was announced as a consumer law instrument, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive operates in a field dominated by competitors. Therefore, the correct transposition of this peculiar directive into national law, as well as its application, was and still is a challenging task. It is questionable if it is feasible at all. Ultimately, the tangible incoherencies and the existing desynchronization of protection against unfair commercial practices, both at the EU and national level, raise fundamental questions not only about the necessity of separate B2C and B2B regulations but also about the interplay between the laws of the EU and the Member States, in particular the new Member States, and about the way they mutually affect and interfere with each other.     

EU Consumer Law Outside the European Union: The Case of Albania

The article examines the emergence of Albanian Consumer Law as an example of the application of the EU consumer acquis beyond the European Union. The argument is that Albanian Consumer Law was established and developed principally as a result of external pressures, whereby as part of the pre-accession process Albania has undertaken an obligation to harmonize its consumer law with EU law. In turn, the weakness of domestic pressures and factors, including a genuine commitment on the part of Albanian policy makers to develop consumer law so as to protect their citizens as consumers, resulted in a fairly slow evolution of consumer law in Albania and the lack of implementation of the initial enactments in practice. However, the empowering of a dedicated Consumer Protection Commission as the main institution in charge of enforcement of consumer law in Albania has led to some enforcement activity and a significant number of consumer protection cases. An analysis of the cases suggests the Commission is using, and upgrading, its powers so as to intervene in a number of different sectors in the economy, including against quite powerful market players.     

Networks to Enforce European Law: The Case of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network

Central to this paper is the aim to discuss the effectiveness of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (also known as ??CPC Network??) for consumer protection in cross-border disputes in the European Union (EU). In doing so, this paper deals with the literature about networks established by grouping the Commission and national authorities to enforce European Law. The examples of the European Competition Network and the CPC Network are interesting because they raise questions with regard to the effectiveness and the accountability of emerging network-based law enforcement. The development of the CPC Network may have relevant implications for other areas of EU law and policy, including the question whether network-based governance could be transposed in other fields of EU Law.     

Consumer Law and Policy in Ghana

This paper presents a picture of the landscape of consumer law and policy in Ghana and reviews the scope of protection of consumer interests with specific regard to product safety and liability, consumer sales, and telecommunication services. It assesses the legislative and policy framework on consumer contracts, product safety, and unfair commercial practices; discusses the role of national agencies in enforcing safety standards; and highlights some critical consumer issues in telecommunications service delivery. The paper examines the regulatory framework on other consumer issues such as advertising, labelling, and marketing of consumer products; terms and conditions of consumer contracts; and after sales services including the enforcement of guarantees, warranties, refund, and return policies. The paper also discusses the extent of external influence on the development of consumer law and policy in Ghana and reviews the level of interaction with other legal systems and supranational bodies in the three focal areas. The contribution also explores areas of Ghana’s consumer protection framework which could benefit from guidance from the EU transnational model on consumer protection and makes recommendations for the enhancement of the emerging legislative and policy regime on consumer protection in Ghana.     

Institutional Design in Hungary: A Case Study of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive

The adoption of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its implementation in the EU Member States raised many academic and policy discussions on substantive issues such as the fairness notion, the substantive test of material distortion, as well as the concept of the average consumer. However, its influence on the Member States' enforcement regimes is equally far-reaching. This paper analyses on the one hand, how EU law, i.e., the UCPD, affected the traditional enforcement models of the Member States and on the other hand, how the allocation of enforcement powers to institutions who enforce the UCPD and the organizational design of these enforcement institutions influence the actual enforcement of EU law in the national legal context. This paper conducts a case study on Hungarian law and examines how Europeanization of unfair commercial practices has changed the Hungarian model of law enforcement. The paper finds that the changes in the Hungarian institutional framework had significant impact on how substantive rules are applied by the various enforcement agencies due to their different enforcement legacies. This case study shows that looking at institutional design provides a deeper understanding of local enforcement modalities, and it offers new insights for Europeanization strategies.     

The Expulsion of the Concept of Protection from the Consumer Law and the Return of Social Elements in the Civil Law: A Bittersweet Polemic

Consumer law started in the 1960s and 1970s as consumer protection law, meant to compensate for the risks and deficiencies of the consumption society which led to an enormous increase. The target of the first generation of national consumer law was the weak consumers, those who could not cope with the increased choice and the resulting risks. The argument here presented is that the European Union by taking over consumer legislation gradually but steadily changed the outlook, from consumer protection law into consumer law. The weak consumer is not the one who is needed for the completion of the Internal Market. This is the famous average consumer which governs today??s?? normative design of the consumer law making and enforcement. However, the shift in paradigm does not set aside the need to strive for legal rules that cover the weakest in the society.     

Enforcement Activity in Consumer Protection Regulation in Croatia

The law regulating consumer protection in the Republic of Croatia began its intensive development through the process of harmonization of Croatian legislation with EU law. Apart from the approximation of Croatian legislation with the acquis, in the pre-accession process, Croatia also undertook obligations to introduce and develop corresponding mechanisms for the efficient enforcement of consumer protection in practice. The development of consumer protection policy was recognized as a priority area in Croatia, and even before full membership, the process of implementing new directives in the area of consumer protection ran almost in parallel to and at the same pace as that of the Member States. Alongside the harmonization of its legislation with the EU consumer acquis, Croatia started developing a regulatory enforcement structure, including a whole series of mechanisms to achieve individual and collective protection of consumer rights. Among other things, the satisfactory development of regulatory enforcement activities in consumer protection was one of the preconditions for the successful completion of the accession negotiations and for signing the accession treaty. At the same time, the article suggests that in the area of both the individual and collective realization of consumer protection, there is a need for further progress through, on the one hand, developing administrative capacities and enhancing access to justice, as well as developing a system of out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes on the other.     

Consumer policy in Latvia

As part of the legislative programs to facilitate the transition to a market economy, the governments of Eastern European States and the former Soviet Union have begun enacting comprehensive consumer protection acts. These statutes have taken a variety of forms, and frequently have drawn upon the experiences of the West for guidance. The Latvian Consumer Law is a noteworthy example that takes consumer rights seriously. This paper analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the statute, with particular emphasis on the compatibility of its provisions with EU norms. The Law addresses most of the core issues in contemporary consumer policy — including product and service liability, warranty, unfair terms, information disclosure, enforcement, and the role of consumer organizations — in a manner that could serve well as a model for other economies in transition.

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Zusammenfassung Verbraucherpolitik in Lettland. Die Regierungen der osteuropäischen Staaten und der Staaten der früheren Sowjetunion haben als Teil ihrer gesetzgeberischen Vorhaben zur Erleichterung des übergangs in eine Marktwirtschaft damit begonnen, umfassende Verbraucherschutzgesetze zu erlassen. Solche Gesetze sind in vielfältigen Formen und mithilfe westlicher Erfahrungen entstanden. Das lettische Verbraucherrecht ist ein bemerkenswertes Beispiel und macht Ernst mit den Verbraucherrechten. Der Beitrag untersucht die Stärken und Schwächen des Gesetzes unter dem besonderen Aspekt der Vereinbarkeit seiner Regelungen mit EU-Normen. Das Gesetz berücksichtigt alle wichtigen Bereiche der herrschenden Verbraucherpolitik — dazu gehören Produkt- und Servicehaftung, Garantieleistungen, unlautere Geschäftsbedingungen, Informationsauflagen, Rechtsdurchsetzung und die Rolle von Verbraucherorganisationen — und kann als Modell für andere Volkswirtschaften im übergang zur Marktwirtschaft dienen.

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He served as the working group leader on law reform for the International Baltic Economic Commission in 1991, and as a consultant to the legislative committee that drafted the Consumer Law for the Republic of Latvia in 1992.Law student Terence Slywka provided valuable research assistance during the writing of this article.     

New Legal Platform for Intellectual Property in the EU

With improving the importance on the intellectual property in China, China and EU have made effort together for helping users find and access legal resources on the current legislative framework of intellectual property （IP） protection and enforcement.     

A “New Approach” to Standards and Consumer Protection

As consumer use of information and communication technology (ICT) products grows, the importance of ICT standards in consumer markets also grows. While standards for manufactured products were once developed at the national level in formal standards bodies, standards for ICT products today are more likely to be developed by informal standards bodies that target global markets, creating new challenges for national consumer protection laws. As part of the process of creating a single market, the EU developed an innovative and successful form of “coregulation” known as the “New Approach” that coordinated the work of legislators and standards developers to reduce technical barriers to trade in the internal market. In order to protect consumer interests in markets for ICT products effectively, another “New Approach” is needed to coordinate the work of global ICT standard-developing organizations with the goals of national and regional consumer protection laws, but the institutional challenges facing such a strategy are daunting. The French DADVSI legislation represents progress in this direction; further progress may be possible by adopting “better regulation” strategies.

Unfair Contract Terms Under Greek Law: Case Law Developments

This note examines a decision by the Greek Supreme Court which offers an interpretation of the unfair term provision in consumer protection law. The case concerned a class action by a consumer organization against a commercial bank. The decision makes a breakthrough in two related respects. First, the Court not only interprets the national law in the light of the EU Directive on Unfair Contract Terms, but also adopts rules of interpretation and reasoning that run parallel to the latest European discussion on unfair contract terms. Second, in an unprecedented manner for Greek case law, it declares a large number of contractual clauses to be unfair, hence broadening consumer protection significantly. Most commercial banks in Greece are now under an obligation to modify their pre-formulated contracts in order to comply with the Court's interpretation of the provision on unfair terms in the Consumer Protection Act.     

欧盟消费者法对商业创新的法律影响力评析

欧盟主要施行的消费者法和相关指令强调的是不仅保护消费者也鼓励竞争和支持创新。法律在竞争性的市场中应为消费者的保护提供一个基本的框架,即"授权"给消费者,让消费者愿意也能够在市场上对商品和服务进行选择,并且根据对商品和服务的质量和安全性的合理预期而确立起足够充分的消费者信心,而其中消费者法对实现这样的目标应该起到基础和关键性的作用。     

Errare humanum est: Financial Literacy in European Consumer Credit Law

Examples of financial mistakes made by consumers lend support to the view that systematic mistakes of consumers exist in the EU credit market and that service providers respond strategically to these by redesigning their products. This paper seeks to determine how existing regulation can be improved to ensure consumer protection. Using insights from behavioural economics, this paper argues that financial literacy??that is, knowledge and understanding of complex financial products and skills to navigate the financial market??as a cornerstone for European financial consumer law is problematic. Current regulation is based primarily on information provision to consumers, which should enable them to make appropriate decisions about the risks and suitability of financial products. Although behavioural economics does not necessarily require legal intervention to take other forms than the introduction of information duties, the type of intervention is dependent on the design and needs of a particular market. The EU consumer credit market, in our view, demands more than the current regulation offers in terms of consumer protection. In particular, behavioural studies reveal that consumers generally do not have a sufficient level of financial literacy in order to enable them to make informed, rational decisions. Moreover, behavioural biases have a distorting influence on consumer decision making. The law as it stands, therefore, seems ill-equipped to offer protection to consumers and to prevent them from rash and bad decision making. Reviewing existing regulation and case law, we propose that in the EU law, the Consumer Credit Directive and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive require updating in order to offer sufficient protection to vulnerable groups of consumers who, on average, have low levels of financial literacy.     

Policy implications

Abstract: In the European Union, the framework of financial services legislation at EU level has been aimed primarily at forming a single market for banks, insurers and other financial services firms. Substantial progress has been made towards this objective. Also, the EU initiatives have stimulated a reappraisal of national regulatory systems. Most of this EU legislation (with the exception of the consumer credit directives) has not had consumer protection as one of its main aims, although it has been assumed that consumers will eventually benefit from a wide choice of financial services providers and from price competition. However, partly in response to consumer pressure, the European Commission is developing a set of initiatives more closely geared to protecting consumers’ interests. Within the context of the EU’s approach, there remain considerable variations in the approach to protecting consumers’ interests in different member states as a result of legal and cultural differences.     

How far away is Europe?

Institutional development in new and potential member countries determines the success of deepening European integration. This papers argues that the timing of future enlargement should depend on institutional convergence between the EU and potential accession candidates. It therefore looks at institutional quality in the EU, in the EU's neighbouring Balkan and Black Sea regions, and especially in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Turkey, i.e. the next countries in the queue for entry. Three dimensions of institutional quality—legislative, administrative and judicial institutions—are analysed on the basis of the World Bank Governance Indicators using institutional quality in EU member states as a benchmark in order to reveal institutional deficits.     

Consumer Class Actions: Are They a Solution for Enforcing Consumer Rights? The Israeli Model

Class actions were introduced into the Israeli legal system in order to overcome the difficulties in the enforcement of consumer laws. Despite extensive consumer legislation during the 1980s, consumer laws were not enforced until the mid 1990s. Only since the incorporation of class action procedures in the Consumer Protection Law in 1994 have consumer actions become more common. The introduction of class actions under the Consumer Protection Law (CPL) led to a revival of consumer protection law. As a result, legal discourse in the field of consumer law has completely changed. Nonetheless, even after 1994 more than 90% of class action applications were dismissed at the early stages. This paper analyses the reasons for the poor results of this procedure, and suggests reform by amending the CPL. The conclusion presented in this paper is that consumer class actions have great potential, but that their correct implementation depends on a better understanding of the purpose of consumer legislation.     

Entrenchment of New Governance in Consumer Policy Formulation: A Platform for European Consumer Citizenship Practice?

Consumer typologies reveal categories of the consumer that stretch from the vulnerable to the empowered notion of the consumer citizen. At the empowered end of this spectrum, consumers in Europe have a developing, normative, organisational structure that provides channels for the consumer voice to influence consumer policy at the European level. This is an organisational structure with mechanisms for developing an effective consumer empowerment and enforcement framework across all EU Member States. It is a framework that forms a coherent whole with the European-level consumer institutions. This paper examines the integrated nature of these institutions and their role in influencing the development of consumer policy through a multi-level platform of new governance. It discusses the normative processes that, through empowerment and engagement, are encouraging a consumer citizenship practice to exploit these channels of communication in order to influence policy development.     

Colston E. Warne Lecture: Consumer Protection 2.0—Protecting Consumers in the 21st Century

The consumer advocacy movement has achieved many successes in the past one hundred years or more but still faces pushback from powerful special interests, including preemption of state authority, and contractual limits, such as arbitration, restricting private enforcement. Further, since laws have not kept up with changes in the financial marketplace, new financial transaction protections are needed. This commentary proposes new approaches for improving consumer protection and giving new tools to consumer advocates, both on and off the Internet, and examines the battle to enact a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.     

Confronting the crisis of food safety and revitalizing companies' social responsibility in the People's Republic of China

In recent years, China has experienced many crises related to food safety which have challenged the legitimacy of food production companies and damaged the reputation of relevant state law enforcement agencies, as well as influenced consumer confidence. Based on recent interviews with 20 food and drink production companies in the Shanghai region, this paper aims to address a key research question: what are the institutional and organizational factors that influence the production systems in general and the quality and safety of products in particular? The outcome of this research indicates that the pressure to minimize costs driven by price competition, changing consumer expectations, as well as a lack of enforcement of state regulation, cause companies to struggle to stay afloat and impede their commitment to social responsibility.