All goods should have labels in Bulgarian under the Consumer Protection Bill passed by Parliament on first reading on February 24.
The declared price should include VAT and all additional taxes and fees, as well as the price of all goods and services thar the consumer has to pay additionally.
Consumers have the right to return goods or services, regardless of whether they have been granted a warranty or not, the bill stipulates.
Special arbitration commissions will assist in settling disputes between consumers and merchants, including on warranty liability. The arbitration commission will include a representative of an association of merchants and a representative of an association of consumers.
The bill provides definitions of advertising and misleading, unfair and comparative advertising.
It was no surprise that the section of the bill that caused the most serious concern was that prices of all goods and services should be in leva with VAT included. This applies also to prices of real estate and rentals, and owners and brokers are wondering how to comform with the new requirement.
Currently, about 90 per cent of real estate transactions are fixed and recorded in euro, as is the case with more than 85 per cent of rentals, although the money is often transferred to leva accounts.
“Fixing the property prices in euro is purely market logic – this is the choice the customer makes. This part of the law could succeed only if it has the support of the media. If prices of properties continue to be published in the newspapers in euro nothing will change,” said Strahil Ivanov, manager of Yavlena.
“If the law is approved and enters into force this way, agencies will have some trouble because we will have to calculate all prices from scratch and renew our database,” said Valya Stavreva from Evroimoti Bulgaria. According to her, the price in euro is also an advertising trick – 30 000 euro does not sound like
60 000 leva.
During the debate in Parliament, MPs criticised some other texts in the bill and planned a complete rewriting for the second reading. One of the main objections was that there were mistakes in the translation of some of the European Union directives and that some of the requirements do not correspond to the actual situation in Bulgaria.
According to some experts, consumer protection in the EU is regulated by lots of documents and concentrating them into a single act would not be a good move. Even a brief look at the ten guiding principles of consumer protection in the Union shows that a single document, be it a law, could hardly solve the problem.
– Business Staff
Consumer Protection
in the European Union:
The Ten Basic Principles
1. Buy what you want, where you want
2. If it doesn’t work, send it back
3. High safety standards for food and other consumer goods
4. Know what you are eating
5. Contracts should be fair to consumers
6. Sometimes consumers can change their mind
7. Making it easier to compare prices
8. Consumer should not be misled
9. Protection while you are on holiday
10. Effective redress for cross-border disputes
The declared price should include VAT and all additional taxes and fees, as well as the price of all goods and services thar the consumer has to pay additionally.
Consumers have the right to return goods or services, regardless of whether they have been granted a warranty or not, the bill stipulates.
Special arbitration commissions will assist in settling disputes between consumers and merchants, including on warranty liability. The arbitration commission will include a representative of an association of merchants and a representative of an association of consumers.
The bill provides definitions of advertising and misleading, unfair and comparative advertising.
It was no surprise that the section of the bill that caused the most serious concern was that prices of all goods and services should be in leva with VAT included. This applies also to prices of real estate and rentals, and owners and brokers are wondering how to comform with the new requirement.
Currently, about 90 per cent of real estate transactions are fixed and recorded in euro, as is the case with more than 85 per cent of rentals, although the money is often transferred to leva accounts.
“Fixing the property prices in euro is purely market logic – this is the choice the customer makes. This part of the law could succeed only if it has the support of the media. If prices of properties continue to be published in the newspapers in euro nothing will change,” said Strahil Ivanov, manager of Yavlena.
“If the law is approved and enters into force this way, agencies will have some trouble because we will have to calculate all prices from scratch and renew our database,” said Valya Stavreva from Evroimoti Bulgaria. According to her, the price in euro is also an advertising trick – 30 000 euro does not sound like
60 000 leva.
During the debate in Parliament, MPs criticised some other texts in the bill and planned a complete rewriting for the second reading. One of the main objections was that there were mistakes in the translation of some of the European Union directives and that some of the requirements do not correspond to the actual situation in Bulgaria.
According to some experts, consumer protection in the EU is regulated by lots of documents and concentrating them into a single act would not be a good move. Even a brief look at the ten guiding principles of consumer protection in the Union shows that a single document, be it a law, could hardly solve the problem.
– Business Staff
Consumer Protection
in the European Union:
The Ten Basic Principles
1. Buy what you want, where you want
2. If it doesn’t work, send it back
3. High safety standards for food and other consumer goods
4. Know what you are eating
5. Contracts should be fair to consumers
6. Sometimes consumers can change their mind
7. Making it easier to compare prices
8. Consumer should not be misled
9. Protection while you are on holiday
10. Effective redress for cross-border disputes
