[size=55:26wfy5ws]novinite
Bulgarian consumers with new rights, responsibilities
The rights of Bulgarian consumers are as comprehensive as the rights of other Europeans. Europe enjoys quite clear rules in this sphere. Bulgaria too, has its Law on consumer protection. The point is however whether Bulgarians practice their rights and are aware of the stipulations of the law so as to use them to their own benefit.
Under the law consumers are entitled to getting information about the goods or services they buy or use, and should be protected from risks that might damage their health or properties, or even threaten their lives. Consumers too, are free to ask for indemnity for damage that entails from poor quality of goods.
Bogomil Nikolov from the Active Consumers Association believes that Bulgarians are still not well informed of their rights, and tend to be more pessimistic in this regard compared to average EU consumers. And if the state-run Commission for Consumer Protection is the body that directly intervenes on the market in cases of unfair commercial practices or sale of flawed goods, Active Consumers is an organization that focuses on making Bulgarian consumers better informed about their rights.
What is the situation on the Bulgarian market? Over the past month alone dangerous baby soothers and toy cars have been removed from stores. Increased nickel content was found in wristwatches that might cause allergies. Laboratory tests have indicated that in 12 types of diet bread label information does not correspond to the actual ingredients. Consumers have complained of mobile operators, banks, central heating utilities and travel agents. A new option that Bulgarian consumers have access to, is filing collective claims to protest poor services, Bogomil Nikolov explains.
“Now we are free to lodge collective claims, a practice that has not been properly regulated in many EU countries yet. So, we are ahead of other member states. If people share a problem, like dissatisfaction with the service of a bank, for example, they can form a group and act together. This, by the way, is much cheaper because the group will hire only one lawyer. This option however, is little known and respectively, used only occasionally.”
The experts from Active Consumers argue that banks in Bulgaria often act improperly through the so-called floating interest rates on consumer and mortgage loans.
“A few days ago we published a comparison of the tools that banks use in determining the floating interest rates”, Bogomil Nikolov goes on to say. “It has turned out that from among 19 banks, we only approved of the tools used by three ones. With the rest we detected quite a few problems and pitfalls. We stated to consumers the banks that treat their customers honestly. Consumers should be very careful, because they can sometimes loose a lot of money.”
By virtue of a European directive there should be a single standard form for providing information about concluded contracts with all banks. Banks however fail to comply with this norm. Fifteen banks have been asked to produce the standard form, and only six of them did so.
Every day dozens of complaints are mailed to the association. In the recent months there has been an increasing number of complaints over improperly high bills from mobile operators and over vague clauses in the contracts that customers sign with them.
“The services for which long-term contracts are signed, have become quite a huge problem”, Bogomil Nikolov admits. “This is so, because mobile operators try to bind customers via various clauses for a very long period of time. Well, the trouble is that many people cannot understand those clauses. The small letters on contracts have emerged as a big problem. Procedures for consumer right protection in such cases are rather slow. So, we work to expose the pitfalls for customers so that they get properly informed before signing the contracts.”
The Active Consumers Association has warned consumers to be careful during shopping on the eve of major holidays, because this is the time when retailers tend to sell goods past their sell-by date. Data from the Commission on Consumer Protection suggests that in 2009 the state-run body for control on the market carried out more than 10,000 inspections for safety of goods on the Bulgarian market, and close to 30,000 ones for protection of consumer rights. Bans have been issued on the sale of 259 articles proven to pose a threat to the life and health of consumers. In 144 cases the measure of temporary closure of a tourist site was applied. The Active Consumers Association warns that the sector of tourism has recently become a frequent target of angry customers. “Many people defend their consumer rights successfully, simply because they have bothered to write down the license number of the respective travel agent”, Bogomil Nikolov says. “So, they act on the spot when a problem occurs. Others however prefer to complain when they are back from holidays. This makes the solution more difficult”, Bogomil Nikolov from the Active Consumers Association concludes.
Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:04 pm