Commission Report (2002): Latvia

• Progress since the last Regular Report
• Overall assessment
• Conclusions

Chapter 23: Consumers and health protection

Progress since the last Regular Report

During the reference period further progress was made in this sector in terms of legal alignment and strengthening the administrative capacity, notably in the regions.

Regarding safety related measures, the Government adopted legislation on requirements for aerosol dispensers and labelling procedures in March 2002. Further amendments concerning labelling of foodstuffs, relating to the novel foodstuffs requirements of the acquis, were approved in August 2001 (see also Chapter 1 -- Free movement of goods).

On non-safety related measures the Parliament adopted amendments to the Consumer Rights Protection Law in November 2001, aiming at further alignment with the acquis in the areas of unfair contract terms, guarantees and injunctions. The Government adopted legislation on distance selling in May 2002.

As regards the functioning market surveillance mechanism, --the Market Surveillance Council has been established to ensure co-ordination between market surveillance institutions themselves and with other bodies such as Customs. Since 2001 it has met three times.

In 2001, the Consumer Rights Protection Centre (the main authority responsible for general product safety in almost all non-food products) set up a division dealing with surveillance of advertising and in particular misleading and comparative advertising and hired 9 extra staff.

In 2002, budget allocations were increased by 28%, allowing the establishment of a legal department as well as of 3 new regional offices (Tukums, Jelgava and Daugavpils).

As regards enforcement, in 2001 the inspectors of the Centre carried out 2508 controls relating to goods and services and detected 1899 breaches; only a few of them concerned the safety of consumer products. The Centre received 596 complaints in 2001, of which 401 were solved in favour of the consumer, and adopted 924 decisions on administrative breaches. So far, it is estimated that 80% of the complaints are solved through mediation and no case has yet been brought before courts.

Regarding the exchange system of information on dangerous products (TRAPEX), about 200 TRAPEX alerts have been received by Latvia; no TRAPEX notifications were made by Latvia itself.

non-governmental consumer organisations play an increasing role in consumer protection and promotion of general awareness of consumer rights. In 2001, the Latvian Consumers` Protection Association received 4258 complaints from consumers concerning quality of goods and services and gave legal advice in order to protect consumer rights.

Overall assessment

Further adjustments of existing legislation are still needed to fully align it with the acquis, in the field of both safety and non-safety measures as well as on general product safety.

While Latvia is in the process of removing barriers to trade such as licences and pre-market authorisations, it is crucial to intensify post-market control to ensure consumer safety, both within the country and in the future enlarged internal market. There is still a danger that unsafe products can be dumped on the market, due to the lack of a coherent system and to the still small number of inspectors as well as the low capability for testing the safety of consumer products falling under the scope of the Directive on General Product Safety.

Furthermore, additional financial and human resources should be allocated to Latvian surveillance authorities and to the Consumer Protection Centre. Awareness among the general public about the safety of non-food consumer products should be improved. A market surveillance information system for the rapid and secure exchange of information should be promoted to link surveillance authorities among themselves.

Further support for consumer organisations is needed in order to enable them to protect consumer interests effectively. Progress also remains to be made in enhancing consumers' and producers' awareness of their respective rights and responsibilities.

Conclusions

In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that Latvia needed to continue reform in the field of consumer protection since the existing legislation needed to be substantially adjusted or new laws brought forward. There was also a need for more efficient institutional structures to ensure the application of legislation. But taking on the consumer protection acquis in the medium term was not expected to cause major problems for Latvia.

Since the Opinion, Latvia has continued to make progress, and few problems have been encountered. Latvia has progressively put in place the legislative framework in the area of consumer and health protection in line with the acquis and has continued to strengthen its administrative capacity in this domain.

Negotiations on this chapter have been provisionally closed. Latvia has not requested any transitional arrangements in this area. Latvia is generally meeting the commitments it has made in the accession negotiations in this field.

In order to complete preparations for membership, Latvia's efforts now need to focus on completing transposition, ensuring that the administrative structures are in place and effectively fulfil their task in terms of market surveillance and increasing consumers` and producers` awareness.

---

Next: Chapter 24: co-operation in the
Up: 3.1. The chapters of the
Previous: Chapter 22: Environment