Realizing consumer rights in Montenegro is often a difficult and long process, which is why more work needs to be done on them and on the education of retailers, all with the aim of achieving better results in that area, according to the Center for Consumer Protection (CEZAP).
The representatives of CEZAP said that it is very difficult to prove that a certain type of goods, most often technical devices, are deliberately produced so that they break down immediately after the warranty expires.
"It is almost as difficult to prove and exercise rights based on a guarantee. For example, if someone buys a product with a two-year warranty and the product breaks down at the beginning of the warranty period, it will take half a year or more until it is proven that the customer did not cause the failure", they told the Mina-business agency from CEZAP.
On the way to realizing their rights, the buyer, as they stated, unfortunately has to overcome several obstacles. The first step is the dealer, the second is the repairman, the third is the manufacturer.
"Also, it often happens that citizens are not sufficiently familiar with the law, i.e. the rights they have as consumers, so this leads to missing deadlines set by law, and thus the loss of certain consumer rights," CEZAP assessed.
On the other hand, as they added, traders themselves are often insufficiently familiar with the Law on Consumer Protection, which can be concluded from the responses to consumer complaints and informing consumers about their rights.
"Also, lack of promptness in the processing of requests and untimely response to them leads to the fact that it is not possible to obtain the information needed to solve the consumer's problem, or the feedback is incomplete," specified CEZAP.
Therefore, CEZAP believes that more work should be done on educating consumers and retailers.
"We believe that there is a need for better legal regulation of this area because, although the new Law on Consumer Protection began to be applied at the end of July last year, it contains many inaccuracies and is insufficient in that sense. That is why we are working on amending and supplementing certain, disputed, provisions of that Law", explained CEZAP.
In addition to better legal regulations, the involvement of competent state institutions is, as they concluded, very important and should be increased, because acting according to the provisions of the law, state institutions, i.e. competent inspection bodies undertake and impose appropriate measures on traders.
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