AND.It has long been established that fair/fully informed and well-educated consumer – therefore, with enough insight and uncompromising/vigilance, decide to buy only those products/services that offer maximum quality and minimum price/tariff at the same time! In other words, a product/service that, from the point of view of the requirements of some potential buyers/consumers is either TOO CLOSE (“DUNT”), or TOO EXPENSIVE, or both, should not be sold, its supplier thus receiving a loss/damage which will not allow him to recover the costs associated with manufacturing and marketing the product/service DOES NOT MEET the consumer’s requirements.

Thus, due to the frequency of manifestations and the power of the aggregate selective attitudes and behaviors of thousands/millions buy/reject decision consumers of certain products/services become, in each market as a whole, o formidable force which governs the quality and price/tariff of the goods/services sold in this market and obligates “suppliers” to offer only products/services that meet their own requirements, therefore – for them – the best and cheapest possible.

B.If the Romanian markets also won proactive consumer attitudes and behaviorsthere would no longer be many situations – unfortunately still too common here – in which, on the one hand, suppliers only offer to the market what they want, can and/or know how to achieve (neglecting or even rejecting the demands and reactions of consumers, even when they are formulated and communicated !!!) – something similar to the former “dictatorship of producers/suppliers” imposed by a centrally planned economy – and, on the other hand, many consumers prefer to buy only what seems cheaper to them on the market (for various reasons – mainly ignorance, sufficiency, poverty, carelessness, etc.), lack of interest or even inability to assess the quality of proposals… From this point of view, it should also be noted that assessment of client/citizen/taxpayer satisfaction (the results of which can significantly affect the quality of the offered products and services) is almost not carried out in the field of communal services or performed very superficially/irrelevantly (mostly by carriers) with simplistic questions of little or no relevance, such as “How soon are you going to be our customer again?” or “How likely are you to recommend us to others?”. In some situations even written notices/complaintscustomers/consumersthey are treated superficially, irrelevantly, sloppily, slowly, late, bureaucratically, arrogantly or even contemptuously by employees of the “Customer Relations” structures of some utility service providers (staff, as a rule, with low technical training and ignoring the requirements of effective communication), especially when human operators were replaced by telephone operators (with which cannot be discussed!) again online access to the heads of these organizations is not possible for the public… Often, some requirements/needs/expectations of clients/consumers are even a priori rejected by some utilities providers for whom it matters not only income/profit monthly/yearly as well maximum convenience (minimum effort) by employees and their supervisors (eg some details on how to access invoices, pay or communicate in writing or verbally, deal with complaints, etc.).

in.Although we have in the field of consumer rights protection a legislation relatively thick, but sometimes difficult to fit/apply, although there are a lot of them structure (especially the ANPC-OPC network and more than 130 consumer protection associations) – which is undertaking some useful and timely initiatives, especially with the aim of market surveillance and with information about the consumer (for example, by publishing the results of comparative tests of common products and distributing them for a fee to interested parties via InfoCons) – reliability, efficiency and especially the effectiveness of this protection (including, in particular, the collection, processing and use of a huge amount of data and information) debatable, generally abbreviated,in the absence of some national policy on quality and consumer education…

● The first example: I am not aware of any consumer protection association that, apart from spreading information/public warnings, act in court on behalf of consumers whom they officially represent, any supplier that does not comply with applicable law (as it often happens in developed countries). Although even here these actions are exempt from stamp duty… Besides, it seems case law for the protection of consumer rights is not available to the media, associations and consumers, to… not harm the image and reputation of the sanctioned/convicted suppliers! And, obviously, to block possible attempts by consumers to boycott suppliers who do not comply with consumer protection laws…

But instead, consumers learn almost every day exclusively from the mass media what problems they have or had with justice, more and more companies (especially private ones) involved in post-privatization situations, in competitions for access to European funding and from other resources, in central and local public procurement (especially during a pandemic), in tax evasion, in numerous offenses and crimes (possible or confirmed), etc.

It should be noted that there is only one state organization in France – DGCRF (Directorate General of Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention) within the framework of the Ministry of Finance – which, using an obvious cause-and-effect relationship, is engaged in both consumer protection and investigation and sanctions of fraud committed by some business entities/operators, including to the detriment of consumers, in order to improve the efficiency of problem solving consumers in an administrative and/or judicial manner, promptly and with minimal costs…

● The second example: given the growing variety of products/services sold in Romania, it is necessary and especially useful – to inform consumers – periodic publication of resultsperiodic comparative tests of all products/services offered on the Romanian market, tests carried out in conditions authority and authority appropriate, therefore ONLY in accredited/recognized laboratories in Romania, all of which are part of Conformity assessment infrastructure. In addition, taking into account COMPLICATION some consumers access/reading/comprehension the information content of labels, installation/use/troubleshooting instructions (poorly translated, edited in multiple languages, ignoring technical and legal terms, edited in very small characters, illegible without a magnifying glass, etc.) of some products, especially those that have been used for a long time.

● The third example:effectiveness of ubiquitous first-party commercial advertising (mainly through TV stations) it’s in Romania among the highest in Europe – mainly through… the trustworthiness of viewers in our country and also due to intensive use of manipulation techniques, especially through frequent and persistent broadcasting of the same messages – although some advertising messages are clearly unrealistic, childish, tasteless or even plainly misleading and therefore have little/no credibility. It should be noted that according to the current legislation, neither CNA nor any consumer protection association evaluates the reality/quality of commercial advertisements broadcast by us (since this, of course, generates considerable turnover, and no one wants to reduce it and solve possible conflict situations generated by advertising) unlike what happens in other states, including former socialist ones…

Under these circumstances, I believe that the consequences of the application of consumer protection legislation in Romania unfortunately still remain too little clearly positive, sometimes even not very credible/convincing since it includes the cooperation of too many responsible factors (sometimes incompatible!), Fr the quasi-exclusive passive-repressive-corrective approach of the ANPC (to the detriment of preventive and active), Fr an increasingly overgrown and inefficient bureaucracy – thus generating all this irrational expenditure of time, money and nerves for consumers, in addition to wasting important budget funds.

In fact, even some representatives of the European Commission have repeatedly stated this publicly effective consumer protection would be …. luxury which can be afforded only by the developed countries of Western Europe, where the standard of living and purchasing power of the population is clearly higher than in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe!!!…These statements are, in fact, confirmation of the many differences that exist – against Romania and its consumers – between consumer protection in our country and consumer protection in developed Western countries (so there is also a “double standard” here). The existence of these numerous and biased differences content, functionality, performance,efficiency efficiency etc. this should be an unacceptable situation for the Romanian government, the ANPC and the NGOs involved.

In my opinion, a solution with a long-term positive impact is to performance of some agreed national policy on quality and education of the population as consumers – which aims not only to transfer some information – in order to turn them into knowledge – but also to encourage some preventive and responsible attitude and behavior for generating and constant improvement of quality by suppliers of products and services, on the Romanian market, through priority and consistent consideration of the requirements and reactions of clients/consumers.…

Simplification of current rules and procedures (including justice), reducing the relevant bureaucracy and organizing reliable benchmarking tests on a national scale for all products and services offered on the market – are implicit and complementary absolutely necessary and priority measures that are likely to contribute to a stronger and clearer focus on the consumer of the actions taken to comply with his rights.

In addition, in Resolution No. 21/1992 on the protection of consumer rightssection IV entitled “Information and education of consumers”no longer includes (after 25 years!!) no provisions on consumer education, all articles 18-26 of this chapter are exclusively for information!! Experts know well that education means much more than information!

Otherwise, we will continue to develop and promote an irrational and non-politically correct – but original-Miorite concept!! – “protection of manufacturers/suppliers” (against consumers!), based on simulation/imitation of protection some consumer rights… Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro