Understanding the Enforcement Malfunction of Consu

Authors: Marija Karanikić Mirić

Publish Date: 2013/07/25

Volume: 36, Issue: 3, Pages: 231-246

PDF Link

Abstract

The new Serbian Law on Consumer Protection was passed in October 2010 and its enactment and general outlook may be attributed to the continuous political pressure and financial and technical support by the European Union EU This paper outlines several factors that may have contributed to the weakness of enforcement in Serbia so that while consumer legislation is fairly harmonized with the EU acquis national standards of consumer protection lag behind those in the EU These tentative explanations of the enforcement malfunction include 1 the lack of institutional capacity to receive the professional and technical support of the EU 2 external pressure as the main incentive for legislative change 3 the lack of belief in the social relevance of legislative changes as such 4 the deficiency of the enforcement mechanisms and the lack of appreciation of their importance and 5 the absence of cooperation between the stakeholders and institutional resistance to change Consumer protection is not an exceptional field characterized by the risks of enforcement failure Moreover the difficulties described in the article are not limited to Serbia as they also happen in other jurisdictions even if in different shapes and forms The success of aligning the national norms to those of the EU and the success of legal transplants in general are always quite uncertain In that sense the case of consumer policy in Serbia should be understood as an instance that may illuminate a class of phenomena

Keywords: