TRADE-EUROPE: Protecting Consumers’ Rights in Eastern Europe

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

LONDON, Jul 25 1997 (IPS) - Back in the days of communism , no citizen in the countries of the old Soviet Bloc would have dared stand up in court and challenge the state over consumer’s rights.

Now all this has changed thanks to the efforts of the Consumers International (CI), the London-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), that campaigns to protect shoppers worldwide.

CI has played a leading role in the formation of 14 consumer branches in 14 central and eastern European countries in the past eight years and stands behind consumers who file suit against a manfacturer. Some of the organisations that it has helped to set up already have scored success in legal battles.

One of the most prominant cases involved an unnamed Russian citizen of Blagotchensk who booked a cubicle in the public baths for himself and his wife and paid 64,000 rubles in advance. When they turned up for the bath at the appointed time, he found a party of strangers using his place. Feeling let down by the firm, he went to court and secured a full refund plus 500,00 rubles in compensation.

Rimantas Stanikunas of the Lithuania Consumer Protection Office tells a similar tale.

In a recent report to the CI office in London, Stanikunas said he had received about 800 complaints and inquiries, of which more than 100 were made by institutions, in Lithuania. Of the private consumer complaints, 92 percent were made by city dwellers.

“About 60 percent of the complaints were justified – most of them were about poor quality of goods,”Stanikunas said. “Overall 70 percent of all claims concerned poor quality of manufactured products – footwear came first, then household appliances, audio equipment and so on. Thanks to the efforts of our specialists, many of these poor products were exchanged or the money was returned.”

In the Czech Republic, consumer groups have successfully campaigned for standard tests on such diverse articles as vacuum- cleaners, roller-blade skatess, footballs, cars, television sets, women’s and men’s underwear, children’s walking shoes and refrigerators.

The advance of consumer’s rights in East and central Europe appeared to lie in the level of literacy that had been achieved, a CI official said.

“One of the major achievements of the former Soviet Union was that the population was nearly 100 percent literate, ” said Anna Fielder. “We find that even the nomadic societies in the deserts can read and write.”

Fielder, who is in charge of Central and Eastern Europe, told IPS that consumers in that region were not used to the luxury of choosing goods. “They were used to queueing… although under Communism, the state used to provide for all the basic needs of its citizens. There was no unemployment, the health system was good, education was free…”Fielder said.

Now, however, a new culture of consumerism is taking over the nations of the former Soviet manifested by the spread of TV and and radio advertisements across central and eastern Europe.

“Even my own brother is a victim of the new TV ads in Romania,” said Fielder. “He goes for anything that is advertised on television.”

Chris Evans of Consumers International said the organisation’s objective was to create a ‘third force’ to fight for the rights of consumers.

“Alongside industry and government we need a third force, that’s us – the consumers’ organisations,” he told IPS.

CI was founded in 1960 under it old name of the ‘International Organisation of Consumers Unions’ – a coalition of small consumer groups that believed they could build upon their individual strengths by linking across national borders. The organisation grew rapidly and soon became recognised as the voice of the international consumer movement on such diverse issues as product standards, environment, health and social policy.

In 1995, the organisation adopted the name Consumers International. “Today it has five regional operations and more than 200 member organisations in over 80 countries,” said Alina Tugend, Press and Publications Officer at the CI.

“We lobby international organisations in a bid to protect the interests of consumers everywhere,” she said.