The Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications, in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia organized the Central Public Debate on the draft of the Consumer Protection Law in Serbia, which was held on October 9, 2013 in the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia.

The Central Public Debate was attended by Assistant Minister Ljiljana Stanković from the relevant ministry and Prof. Thierry Bourgoignie, the Team Leader of the EU funded project “Strengthening Consumer Protection in Serbia”, and the vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia Zdravko Jelušić and the secretary of the Trade Association Gordana Hašimbegović.

The new Consumer Protection Law defines the objectives related to: strengthening the national institutional framework of the consumer protection policy, establishing a more effective mechanism for the implementation of the Law, empowering consumers’ associations and harmonization of the national legislation with the EU acquis (EU Consumer Law).

The most important novelties are: the establishment of the Center for the settlement of consumer disputes in order to strengthen the institutional framework, expanding the scope of supervision of inspection bodies to make the law enforcement mechanism more effective, and establishing the basic criteria that must be met by all the associations, that is strengthening consumer protection associations.

The competences of the Center for the settlement of consumer disputes include: monitoring the market (unfair business practices and unfair contract terms), admission, registration and resolution of consumer complaints and the management of the National Registry of consumer complaints, out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes, the initiation of proceedings for the protection of the collective interests of consumers, the initiation of the preparation of a code of conduct.

The concrete benefits for the consumer are: the prohibition of discrimination, the obligation of notification prior to the conclusion of an agreement, then, the possibility for the consumer to attend the verification of the non-conformity of goods carried out by a seller and the introduction of a provision that would prevent the imposition of repairs to the consumer in the first 6 months. In addition to delivering the goods to the consumer, the seller is obligated to submit the following documentation and in particular: the declaration, user manual, installation instructions, and if the sold goods are technical equipment, a list of authorized service providers for the territory of the Republic of Serbia, which provides a higher level of consumer protection for the purchase of products of certain categories.

The most important novelty which allows significantly more effective consumer protection is related to the detailed complaints procedure regulation, keeping a book of complaints by the seller and the deadline for the resolution of complaints is reduced from 15 to 8 days.

On delivery, the seller is obligated to deliver the goods and hand over the documents relating to it within the maximum delivery period of 30 days, unless otherwise agreed. Novelties in relation to the supply of goods are the regulations for the delivery of goods to the address of the consumer, then the fact that a delivery is not proper if the delivered goods are left outside the door.

An important change to the consumers’ benefit has to do with commercial guarantees and the introduction of an obligation to submit a warranty to the consumer in writing, and only if the customer agrees in electronic form.

The new law expands the scope of penal provisions and provides that inspection authorities and regulators initiate proceedings for the protection of collective interests which enables the consumer use his rights comprehensively.

During the public debate, which runs until the end of October, all interested parties can submit their comments and suggestions on the Draft of the consumer protection law.