Draft of the Consumer Protection Act
The current legal regulation of consumer protection is fragmented and included in several laws, which often leads to difficulties in understanding it for both consumers and suppliers.
The new draft of the Consumer Protection Act, which was submitted to the National Council of the Slovak Republic on April 14, 2023, aims to provide comprehensive and transparent legal regulations regarding consumer protection, taking into account the dynamics of the market and the online environment.
The new Consumer Protection Act, based on European Union directives on consumer protection, digitization, and sale of goods, aims to ensure a unified legal regulation. To achieve this goal, currently valid laws, such as the Consumer Protection Act or the Act on Consumer Protection in the Provision of Services at a Distance or outside business premises, are being repealed.
What changes in consumer protection are proposed?
The draft Consumer Protection Act brings a number of significant changes, among which are mainly (a) the introduction of new terms into the Civil Code, such as digital service, online market, digital element, trader (instead of supplier), and a change in the definition of consumer and other terms, (b) introduction of a new contract type – contracts with digital fulfillment and definition of consumer sales contracts, (c) changes in the application of liability for defects and complaints, which will be addressed in the Slovak Civil Code, (d) expansion of trader’s information obligations towards the consumer in connection with the purchase of digital services and digital content, (e)introduction of the obligation for the trader to provide the consumer with all information for making an informed decision, (f) adjustment of the invalidity of securing obligations from consumer contracts, (g) introduction of new regulation when reducing prices and preventing price manipulation and misleading consumers about the amount of the actual discount, (h) strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of supervision and its preventive and educational action and (i) amendment of sanction provisions so that imposed sanctions could be more fair and proportionate.
Changes are also occurring in the field of alternative dispute resolution and the possibility of securing an expert’s opinion on factual issues is enshrined.
The effectiveness of the new Consumer Protection Act is planned for August 1, 2023.