engleski

Consumer protection policy performance in European countries

Consumers play a key role in an economic policy for smart, inclusive and sustainable growth. After the fall in consumer spending during the recent economic crisis, the European governments have increased their efforts to develop an economic policy that will stimulate consumer spending through all retail channels, especially online. Consumer protection falls within the shared competence of the EU and Member States. Their priority is to develop a regulatory framework which would remove some of the market barriers, promote economic growth, and increase consumer confidence in commercial transactions, in order to reach the European level of consumer policy performance. The paper is divided into three parts. First part deals with regulatory framework of customer rights protection policy in order to identify field of action. Then, in the second part, consumer policy performance in key areas is compared: consumer confidence, compliance with consumer legislation, complaints management and redress mechanisms, and in the last chapter, public policy improvements were discussed. It is necessary to compare the current performance of policy in action. Using the latest available data from Consumer Conditions Scoreboard, the paper explores consumer policy performance in several European countries and compares its effectiveness taking into consideration some of the indicators of successful policy implementation like consumer knowledge and trust, compliance with consumer legislation, complaint and redress mechanisms. Some studies have shown that the safety of products and services can have the most powerful positive or negative effect on personal consumption, and the complexity of the procedure for filing and administration of complaints usually deters consumers from exercising their basic right. The findings of the paper can provide policy makers especially in countries lagged behind like Croatia, with useful information and help them take a position in the development of this market regulation policy that affect consumer lifestyle, market confidence, retail prices, provision of quality goods and services, and among other things may bring the society and market closer to the concept of consumer protection.

Consumer policy ; Market regulation ; Performance, European Union

Prezentacija 16.6.2017.