In the two years she spent studying abroad, twenty-five-year-old Božana Mašanović says that she noticed that the quality of the products she bought there differed from the products available to her in Montenegro, where she was born.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe (RSE), she explains that she was not surprised because, even before she left for her studies, there was already a big debate about the lower quality of products that were marketed in Central and Eastern Europe.
"The first thing I noticed was the well-known moment around Nutella. There really was a difference in taste and price. It seems to me that we pay a higher price for the same amount of Nutella, and I heard earlier that we get lower quality Nutella, that is, Nutella with fewer hazelnuts. The same I have noticed for many other products, say for cosmetics or products for face and body care in general. There are definitely differences," Mašanović said.
The practice of so-called "dual product quality", i.e. the difference in the quality of goods from the same manufacturer that is marketed both within the EU itself and on markets outside it, was discovered at the beginning of 2017 and met with strong reactions, both among the EU member states and in official Brussels .
The then president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that he would not accept that in some parts of Europe, people are being sold food of a lower quality than in other countries.
"We now need to give national authorities stronger powers to end all illegal practices wherever they exist," Juncker said in 2017.
After this practice was discovered, the European Commission adopted the Modernization Directive, which introduced a special provision related to dual quality into the Unfair Business Practices Directive.
Since then, the Commission's joint research center has conducted several studies that have shown that within the EU, the share of food products that have the same or similar packaging, but with different composition, is decreasing. While these products made up 31 percent of the tested samples back in 2018 and 2019, in 2021 their share dropped to 24 percent, according to the European Commission website.
It has been announced that the Commission will report in 2024 on the implementation of the Modernization Directive and its better enforcement, including rules related to "dual quality".
An official of the European Commission explained to RSE that the EU member states had to apply the Modernization Directive in their national legislation by November 28, 2021, and that national laws should start applying them from May 28, 2022.
"So far, all but one member state has implemented the Modernization Directive, including this amendment to the Unfair Business Practices Directive," said a Commission official.
Experiences from the youngest member of the EU
The youngest member state of the EU, after the existence of dual product quality was made public, conducted research that confirmed that the citizens of Croatia eat food of a worse quality than the Germans, and in addition, mostly much more expensive food.
The president of the Croatian Association for Consumer Protection (HUZP) Ana Knežević said that the Food Agency there - HAH, in cooperation with authorized laboratories and at the initiative of the Croatian Member of the European Parliament Biljana Borzan, compared the quality of 80 products on the Croatian and German markets.
He recalls that the case with the company Nutela resonated the most with the public, since it turned out that the spread of that company has more sugar and less hazelnuts in Croatia than in Germany.
"Things have not improved much. We justifiably doubt that we still have products of double quality. In those cases, people most often contact the Association if, for example, they live in Austria or Germany and buy Persil or Ariel detergents, where the difference in quality is most noticeable. It's not the same laundry washed with Ariel that was bought here or in Germany or Austria," Knežević told RSE.
In Montenegro, which aspires to EU membership, no such research has been done, at least not in the period from May 2022, when the application of the Directive on unfair business practices came into force, said the president of the Montenegrin Society for Consumer Protection (CEZAP) Olga Nikčević.
"Nobody here has done those analyses, we don't even have laboratories that could do ecotoxicological research. I'm not aware that the state has taken such steps, that story has not come to light in the public," said Nikčević.
As Nikčević says, apart from the work of CEZAPA, he also encounters the "dual quality of the product" in his everyday life.
"Here we received a Milka chocolate as a gift with a very poor packaging compared to some that were before. We looked at the composition on which it says that the chocolate contains 60 percent sugar. You can't swallow it because of how sweet it is, not to mention how much it is harmful," Nikčević said.
She is determined that the dual quality of the product is an unfair business practice and misleading consumers.
"Classic fraud that is of course punishable by law, our law and hopefully by any other. The victim is always the consumer. The consumer is indeed the target of various frauds, and these are big companies," Nikčević warned for RSE.
What is Brussels doing?
An official of the European Commission said that this institution does not have direct enforcement powers in the area of EU consumer law, so it is up to the consumer protection bodies of the EU member states to check whether companies comply with their obligations under the EU Law on Consumer Protection, including in the area of "dual quality". .
"However, the European Commission coordinates and supports the work of those bodies in cross-border situations, especially when violations concern several or most EU member states," said a Commission official.
As he said, since the issue of "dual quality" by its nature arises in cross-border situations, the Commission has taken decisive measures to support the detection of "dual quality" cases.
"For example, by providing guidance on existing legislation, developing a common methodology for testing and comparing products across the EU, providing funding for consumer bodies and organizations to develop testing capacity or exploring how Member States or representatives of consumers and traders can use modern ICT tools (tools information and communication technologies) to detect "dual quality" practices," the EU official said.
He said EU consumer protection directives, including the modernization and unfair business practice directives, must be applied by all EU member states, and traders targeting EU consumers must comply with the relevant national laws transposing those directives.
"Candidate countries [for EU membership] must adopt EU legislation before joining the Union. They must incorporate it into their national legal order by the day of EU accession, and from that day they are obliged to apply it," said an EU official.
He said that consumers in the European Union benefit from a very high level of consumer protection, adding that it would be beneficial for other countries to adopt similar levels of protection, especially neighboring countries and those with the prospect of EU membership in the future.
How to overcome the gap between regulations and implementation?
Knežević sees the problem that consumers in Croatia are not sufficiently educated and informed about their rights. That country, as she clarified, has national programs for consumer protection for a four-year period, in which, among other things, it is stated that consumer education will be included in the curricula.
However, this has not yet happened, although practice shows that education would significantly improve things.
"We had some projects with students in primary and secondary schools and saw that they don't know anything about it, but that they react very well when information is given to them. In one primary school in Sisak, we talked with seventh graders about the difference between ' Use by' and 'Best by'. Then on the second day we got calls from moms telling us that their children had instructed them not to throw away rice that was good even though it had passed its date. So - it works. It's just that nothing is done to make it happen ", Knežević believes.
She stated that it is not enough to pass a legal provision, but that it is important how it is applied in practice.
"Our law on consumer protection included that main quality, but it means nothing to consumers when there is no possibility to control how effective it is in practice. It is poorly applied in practice. When (Vice President of the European Commission) Vera Jurova raised the issue, then all Western countries were horrified because they could not believe that products of different quality were sold under the same brand in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. That's why these regulations were started, but passing a regulation is one thing, but implementing it is something completely different," Knežević said. .
There is a solution to that situation, and she sees it in financial support from relevant ministries for food testing projects.
"The German consumer association, for example, receives special money from the Ministry of Agriculture for testing food and products. If we had such a budget and if our ministry financed us, then we could test products that we suspect are of dual quality, publish the results and invite consumers not to buy them. Consumers are market regulators, if we don't buy something then it can't be sold. As long as consumers don't have information about whether it's good or not - they buy it," said Knežević.
In the meantime, according to her assessment, the situation for consumers is only getting worse.
"The more directives are passed and the more we harmonize with them, the more problems consumers have because the quality of everything has definitely devalued," concluded Knežević.
Nikčević says that the citizens of Montenegro could easily protect themselves - by passing a law that will prescribe what products may not be imported.
"For example, this chocolate, which has more than 30 percent sugar. Five or six years ago, we established that there is a lot of salt in our domestic and imported products from the region. For example, you had 17 percent salt in prosciutto, which is really not for humane use. The law then determined what the maximum percentage of salt was and that was respected, there are no more such horribly salted dried meat products," said Nikčević.
Montenegro, as she stated, does not have a specialized laboratory for testing product content, but that is why it can pay, for example, neighboring Serbia or Croatia to perform these analyses.
"But first you have to know what is allowed and what is not. We don't know that and whether it was acted upon according to the then conclusion. The control will only be done, and whether it will end in 2024. That remains to be seen," Nikčević concluded. .
In the meantime, as Mašanović notes, many citizens get to know each other and "order" certain products from acquaintances who travel or live abroad. However, as she said, sometimes citizens simply have no choice and have to use what is currently offered.
"If we buy a certain product, we are obliged to look at the label. Just as they [manufacturers] are obliged to indicate the contents on the labels, we are obliged to look a little more closely at what is actually there, but also to be responsible and report it at the end of the day," she said. said Mašanović, reminding that citizens have available websites and applications where they can check the production date and origin of the products they buy.
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