The necessity of amendment and supplement to the Law on Consumer Protection

Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors Dang Van Thanh commented on the Draft Law on Protection of Consumers' Rights (Amendment)

This indicates that the Party and State always take priority to the protection of consumers' rights in the process of national construction and development. After the Law on Protection of Consumers’ Rights was promulgated, the Government and ministries at central level have issued a number of guiding documents and actively processed the implementation and enforcement.

However, in the new context of the economy, many regulations have been no longer appropriate, thereby, a number of new contents need to be supplemented. It becomes necessary to amend and supplement the Law in order to meet the new requirements of the open and integrated market economy.

In general, the Draft Law on Protection of Consumers' Rights (amended) has 7 chapters, 79 articles which have been edited and revised many times after receiving opinions of National Assembly delegates, organizations and experts and the people.

In accordance with Mr. Dang Van Thanh - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors, after researching, many contents have been revised and supplemented, in order to ensuring the quality of the Draft Law, it is necessary to stipulate in the direction of including “organizations” along with individuals who are “consumers”. Consumers are free to buy goods, services, they are both individuals and organizations (businesses, state management agencies, trade associations, social organizations, unions, etc.) who purchase goods and services to use for the needs of individuals, families or organizations, not for the purpose of doing business. In other words, these subjects make the purchase of goods and use services for the activities of individuals and organizations, not for purpose of doing business, or seeking economic benefits and profits.

Those who buy goods and services for resale or use as raw materials for production and business activities are protected by other legal documents such as the Civil Code, the Commercial Law, Competition Law, Criminal Code, etc.

In this section, Mr. Dang Van Thanh said that both products and goods should not be regulated, but only goods because the products that have been circulated on the market, exchanged and used are goods. There should be a clearer and more reasonable rearrangement of rights and obligations. For example, right or obligation to inspect goods before receiving, right or obligation, or both right and obligation to participate in the development of consumer protection policies and laws, rights or obligations to give advice to organizations and individuals.

Regarding the state policies on consumer protection (Article 7) according to the Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors, the 8 - paragraph content is a bit long and it needs to be briefly presented. Some regulations are not subject to policies but state management responsibilities, for example, Clause 4: Deployment of measures to consult, support, survey, evaluate, test, propagate, disseminate and guide, manage, supervise... Clause 7: Enhancing business ethics... Entire Chapter II includes responsibilities of goods and services traders towards consumers. This chapter mentions the full responsibility of the manufacturer, direct service provider, authorized third party to provide information about products and services. However, it is necessary to review some regulations to make them more feasible, closer to reality, to limit the general provisions that may cause inconsistent interpretation.

Regarding regulations on social organizations participating in the protection of consumers' interests, Mr. Dang Van Thanh said that it is advisable to regulate protection of consumers’ rights of social - professional organizations, not just organizations. There are separate regulations on rights and obligations of social organizations in protecting consumers' rights and there are regulations on obligations and rights of social organizations in protecting consumers' rights. Socio-professional organizations participate in protecting the interests of consumers within the scope of professional-related goods and services of social - professional organizations, in addition to social - professional organizations with the following objectives: protect the interests of consumers (Article 48).

Workshop to collect comments on the Draft Law onProtection of Consumers' Rights (Amendment) organized by VUSTA in collaboration with the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment on February 9

In addition, according to Mr. Dang Van Thanh, there should be a provision on the rights and responsibilities of social - professional organizations participating in protecting the interests of consumers, specifically as follows:

Socio-professional organizations have been established under the provisions of law and operated under the charter which allow such organizations to participate in activities of protecting the interests of consumers of goods and services within the professional scope of the socio-professional organizations.

Consumer protection activities of social - professional organizations must comply with the provisions of this Law and other relevant regulations.

Dr. Dang Van Thanh commented that the participation in protecting consumer interests of social-professional organizations must include such activities as guide, which help and advise consumers of goods and services in social - professional organizations; Organize the negotiation and conciliation of disputes between consumers and organizations and individuals trading goods and services in accordance with this Law upon request; Carry out surveys and tests; publicizing the results of survey and testing the quality of goods and services subject to profession; Participating in the development of laws, guidelines, policies, directions, plans, programs, projects and measures on consumer protection; Participating in checking activities related to consumer protection…