Vesna Novaković, Head of the Department for Consumer Protection at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, said that the new Law on Consumer Protection will provide the inspections with greater authority and will ensure a faster response to complaints.

The new law will introduce the book of complaints which will give inspectors a better insight into irregularities. Moreover, it will restrict the arbitrariness of retailers.

“We extended the scope of the inspection to all the elements and forms of unfair business practices. So far, the inspection only covered the forms that are on the so-called ‘black list’, and now it is predicted that the effect of the market inspection will cover all forms of unfair business practices, especially in terms of suppression of intrusive and deceptive businesses,” said Vesna Novaković in an interview for RTS.

As for claims for defective goods, the response to such claims should be within 8 instead of 15 days under the new law.

Vera Vida from the Serbian Consumers Union said that the novelty is that the retailer will have to submit to the customer a reasoned decision on the complaint and motion. “You know that we often had cases where one takes his phone for repair, the phone ends up in the service facility, and a few days later one is informed that the phone is wet and that he will be denied his warranty. Now consumers will have the right to attend determining conformity, or check if a device is faulty or not,” said Vera Vida.