engleski

Consumer redress and enforcement mechanisms – challenges in application of EU consumer law in providing access to justice

In the last decade lawmaking in the field of EU consumer law has been particularly intense. In order for the European union (hereinafter: EU) to function properly as a common single market it does not suffice to remove obstacles for trade such as of high taxes, costs of production, delivery or other economic barriers. Namely, different standards of procedural protection and availability of access to justice in national and cross-border disputes in the field of consumer protection diminish the trust of consumers in the single market and create barriers for trade. Hence, efforts have been made in order to create instruments in the field of consumer law which would ensure essential rights to consumers across 28 Member States (hereinafter: MS). In order to accomplish the set goal, alongside the standards which provide for protection of essential rights of consumers in the MS, redress and enforcement mechanisms which safeguard them should be available. In the research of the impact of EU consumer law in removing difficulties and obstacles for obtaining procedural protection of individual as well as collective interests and rights of consumers in case of law infringements by traders critical analysis and synthesis as well as a comparative method will be used. Inductive approach will be used in the analysis in order to draw upon the experience of implementation and/or direct application of EU consumer law in Croatian legal system. The gathered results will be interpreted in order to conclude whether instruments of EU consumer law employing measures of horizontal and vertical harmonization provide for adequate procedural protection for consumers in national and cross-border disputes.

consumer protection ; trade ; barriers ; access to justice ; horizontal and vertical harmonization

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