Consumer protection policy is effective only if it is based on the principles that each consumer must obtain information, advice and appropriate legal assistance in order to exercise his rights guaranteed by the law, it was announced from the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI).
The Executive director of CeMI, Nikoleta Đukanović, said in a statement on the occasion of the World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, that consumer rights and consumer policies are still a big obscure to most Montenegrin citizens.
“Although national consumer protection programs, as well as other strategic documents, define consumer protection as one of the priority areas for achieving a better quality of life for all citizens, and in order to achieve harmonization of consumer protection standards with European standards in the process of Montenegro’s integration into the EU, for the purpose of efficient consumer protection and the functioning of the market economy, the question is how much the Montenegrin consumer society is really close to European standards”, said Đukanović.
According to her words, although significant progress has been made in the last ten years, it is necessary, as she believes, to do much more to improve consumer protection policy, raise consumer awareness and strengthen administrative capacity to implement the law.
“In that sense, it is especially important to harmonize legislation with European standards and directives, to improve law enforcement in practice, strengthen mechanisms for out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes, and empower the non-governmental sector in this area,” Đukanović said.
She said that, with the question of how much the Montenegrin consumer is informed and educated about his consumer rights, it is also asked how much the Montenegrin consumer is responsible.
“The most common problems that arise in this area, which has been shown by numerous citizens reports via web and mobile application www.potrosaci.me, are: low level of citizen awareness on consumer protection issues, inability to understand contractual provisions, especially in the field of telecommunications, financial services, energy, than the lack or inadequate price labeling and additional costs, incomplete product labeling.”, stated Đukanović.
She has pointed out that among the problems that arise in this area are the lack of instructions and warnings, misunderstanding of product conformity provisions and unclear terms of warranty, unfair commercial practices, unfair commercial practices and misleading advertising, aggressive sales methods, poor quality of goods and poor quality of food, and unhygienic conditions in which the food bought by citizens is stored.
“Among the most common problems in this area are the inability to use the right to reclamation, the ultimate search for fiscal accounts by retailers, non-compliance with deadlines for the delivery of technical goods, exceeding the deadline for repairing technical goods”, said Đukanović.
She believes that in the coming period it is important to work on citizens education on consumers rights, to strengthen cooperation between state institutions and Civil Society Organizations, in order to achieve greater awareness of citizens about their consumer rights, and, as she pointed out, to strengthen institutions in order to create adequate conditions for citizens to enjoy their legal rights in practice.