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Skócia és Anglia – reform a tisztességtelen kereskedelmi gyakorlatok terén
35-42Views:129After the implementation of the 2005/29/EC Directive on unfair commercial practices (hereafter: UCPD) in the United Kingdom is has been discovered that the misleading and the aggressive practices are targeting many people. Some of them moreover damage the reputation of the traders who act legally, and the reputation of the market.
So, the Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission for England and Wales want to create a new system on remedies. Because of this aim the two commission started a consultation in April, it ended in July.
Presently, The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (hereafter: CPRs) – which was one of the regulations which have implemented the rules of the UCPD – contains rules on the liability for unfair commercial practices, and - according to the rules – the realization of the practices is an offence.
But in respect of civil law the rules don’t have unity: the rules of misrepresentation are applied in the case of misleading practices, but in the case of aggressive practices there aren’t rules.
The two commissions want to create a new consumer protection act, which will complete the rules of the CPRs. In this act there will be two levels of remedies:
- on the first level the main aim will be the restoration of original condition (before the contract)
- on the second level the main aim will be the compensation.
The commissions hope that after the reform the following will be:
- because of the clearer rules the claims will become more successful
- because of the clearer rules the traders’ - who are acting legally - costs will decrease
- the costs of the organizations – which are dealing with consumer protection – will decrease after the reform, and the proceedings of them – perhaps – become more successful.
The two commissions will publish the data from the consultation in March 2012.
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The Significance of the Right to Repair Directive in Promoting Sustainable Consumption in the Light of Consumer Contracts
21-45Views:78The process of the green transition is increasingly influencing European Union policies, legal fields, and institutions, and consumer protection law is no exception. The promotion of sustainable consumption through consumer contract law first gained prominence in 2019 and became a more intensive focus in 2024.
This study aims to analyze and assess the reception of sustainable consumption in EU law, with particular attention to Directives 2019/771 and 2024/1799. The analysis focuses on how these directives introduced new legal instruments into harmonized contract law and how these instruments can simultaneously serve the high-level protection of consumers and the promotion of sustainable consumption.
The study does not seek to provide a comprehensive overview of the competition law and intellectual property law challenges surrounding the right to repair. These legal fields are mentioned only insofar as they fulfill a consumer protection function.
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Directive on consumer rights (concerning the unfair commercial practices)
47-58Views:94In the past years the European Union has been walking – with its directives, like the 2005/29/EC Directive on consumer rights and the 2008/48/EC Directive on credit agreements for consumers - on a new way, on which it doesn’t let the Member States to regulate (widely). So, minimum clauses are no longer used and the aim is the total harmonization.
The perfect example for this procedure is the Directive on consumer rights, which was published in the end of 2011 in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The aim of this paper is to introduce the new directive, but from the rules there will be only the demonstration of the rules which are in connection with the unfair commercial practices.
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Consumer insolvency in the European Union
153-163Views:223Almost all modern civil legal systems respect property rights as a privileged and fundamental right, which means the property rights of individuals cannot be restricted or taken away without due process of law. In the case of insolvency proceedings, the person's right to property is violated, as the debtor is deprived of this right, at least partially. In such situations, the property rights of the debtor and the creditor are strained against each other, even to such level that the debtor's livelihood and alimentation is threatened by the satisfaction of the creditor's demands. During insolvency proceedings, we should restore the property rights relationship that was broken on the part of the creditor as a result of the debtor's behavior at the expense of the debtor's assets, ensuring that the debtor's interests are also protected, and that the proceedings take into account the interests of both parties. National lawmakers should, therefore, take several aspects into account to create the material and procedural legislation on the basis of which property of private individuals can also be subject to insolvency proceedings. Lawmakers should act in an environment where, due to the impact of globalization, it is no longer evident that the debtor and the creditor are citizens of the same country. This is the reason it is also important to examine how the European Union regulates insolvency proceedings in the case of consumer over-indebtedness in a manner that crosses national borders and still remains inside the Union.
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Information about the regulation of service charges in relation to the procedure of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights
19-40Views:322The article introduces the statutory regulation of service charges in relation to the procedure of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights in a complex manner, by referring to all affected parts of the statutory system providing a detailed and critical analysis, reasoning, furthermore the article also refers to the statutory dogmatic, constitutional issues, controversies, maladministration and interpreting questions related to service charges, by also making reference to the halts in consumer protection – repealing the 15% upper limit. The article presents the answer of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and the necessary reflection to this answer. The author publishes his thorough and firm opinion, which takes into consideration consumer protection and discrimination aspects, in a usable manner for legislators and law enforcement bodies, and summarises the final conclusions, „missing items” complied in nine points.
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Financial consumer protection and financial culture
38-48Views:314The global economic crisis in 2008 highlighted that there is an information assymetry between the financial service providers and consumers, furthermore given the vulnerability of the consumers there is a need for immediate actions to protect the latter. Financial consumer protection has come to the fore, which is a relatively new area of law, however by now has fought for a highly significant role for itself and its importance is growing day by day.
Unforunately, however, the financial culture of the Hungarian population is extremely low. This carries significant risks, since citizens with lower financial literacy tend to be less active in the economic life and and they make decisions that are clearly unfavorable to them en masse, therefore the development of a financial culture is essential.
In my opinion, financial awareness can be developed primarily through the transfer and dissemination of knowledge about financial literacy, in other words the most effective way is through education. Education should be aimed primarily at the youngest generations and the main emphasis should be on educating children, since they are extremely receptive to the acquisition of new knowledge and will have the most outstanding impact on the future. If the education of financial awareness begins at a very young age, by the time these children grow up, they will routinely make conscious financial decisions, therefore the next generation can grow up to be able to “handle money” properly.
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Act on Business Advertising Activity and the protection of inherent rights under Hungarian civil law
Views:302There is a significant inconsistency within the domain of enforcement of inherent rights in the Hungarian regulation. The protection of the inherent rights is based on the section 75 of Act IV of 1959 (hereinafter: „Civil Code”), which provides that inherent rights shall be observed by everyone and inherent rights are protected by law.
The lack of consistency can be led back to the difference between the provisions of the Civil Code and Act LVIII of 1997 on Business Advertising Activity. Under Section 85 of the Civil Code inherent rights may only be enforced in person.
There are two exceptions to the above rule laid down in the Civil Code:
- The legal representative of an incompetent person, or the relative or conservator of a missing person whose whereabouts are unknown shall be entitled to proceed in the protection of that person's inherent rights.
- In the case of impairment to the memory of a deceased person, the relative and/or the person having been named as the heir apparent in the will of the deceased shall be entitled to file a court action. If conduct causing defamation to a deceased person (former legal person) infringes upon the public interest, the public prosecutor shall also be entitled to enforce this inherent right.
The Act on Business Advertising Activity provides for several general advertising prohibitions and restrictions. Under Section 4 of this act advertising may not be published if it infringes personal rights, respect for the deceased or rights related to the protection of personal data. Under Section 16 of this act advertising control proceedings may be initiated upon request or ex officio. Based on the regulation of the Act on Business Advertising Activity advertising control proceedings may be requested by any person whose rights or rightful interests, or legal status is injured by violation of any provisions relating to commercial advertising activity. If the aggrieved consumer cannot be identified, or if enforcement of the claims is inappropriate considering the number of consumers injured, administrative agencies or non-governmental organizations providing for consumer interests shall also be entitled to initiate proceedings.
When the regulations of the Civil Code on enforcement of inherent rights are compared with that of the Act on Business Advertising Activity, it can be established that provisions of the latter act are not in compliance with the provisions of the Civil Code. On the basis of the decision No. 1270/B/1997 of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, the inconsistency is not significant, the different regulatory of the mentioned acts is not unconstitutional. I take the view that in order to achieve consistent regulation the Act on Business Advertising Activity should be modified by prohibiting the advertising control proceedings initiated ex officio in relation to the advertisings which infringe personal rights.
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Thoughts about the new directions of European contract law
Views:119On the field of contract law the European Union started a wide legislative effect at the end of the 20th Century. Despite of the originally economic and public legal goals of the Communities recently the competence of the EC institutions conquest a major field in the area of private law. To ensure the fast and non-problematic acceptance of these directives concerning to contract law EC chose two important solutions. Most of the directives focus on the neglected area of the so-called atypical contracts (hawk contracts, e-commerce contracts, leasing contracts, factoring contracts, etc.). As these contractual forms were born in the hands of business actors, most of the European civil codes do not deal with them in an explicit way. As a gap of law this area is the best approach to create unified legal institutions in all Member States’ legislation. The other relevant factor is the law of consumer protection. This is not only a fashionable topic in Europe but a rather underdeveloped issue in – especially – the new Member States. Almost all legal institutions in the EC directives in connection with contract law contain a strong link to protecting customers. As and indirect effect, these new institutions (such as consumer’s right to withdrawal) found their ways in the national codes to be flagships applicable for all consumer contracts. This essay contains thoughts about these relevant changes in approaching contract law from the rather unique EC perspective.
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The Aftermath of the C-149/15 ECJ Judgment on the Liability of Online Marketplaces Misleading Consumers
47-63Views:72The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in its judgment in case C-149/15, Sabrina Wathelet v. Garage Bietheres & Fils SPRL, introduced a significant shift in the approach to the civil liability of intermediaries who facilitate the conclusion of contracts between consumers and businesses. The CJEU ruled that, under certain circumstances, a third party facilitating the transaction may be considered the seller in a sales contract between a consumer-seller and a consumer-buyer. Recent consumer protection legislation in the European Union suggests that the principles established in the judgment have laid the groundwork for holding online marketplaces, which have previously operated unchecked and engaged in fraudulent practices against consumers, civilly liable.
This paper first briefly outlines the key elements of the judgment and then examines how the European Union's Digital Services Act (hereinafter: DSA) and the new Product Liability Directive regulate the liability of service providers operating online marketplaces.
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Possibilities of workplace mediation in the European Union
1-13.Views:535The world of labor market and industrial relations is a field where conflicts and disputes are inevitable characteristics of the operation, regardless of the form of employment. Also, labor disputes appear both from an individual aspect, where the disputants are the employer and the employee, and in a collective respect, where the disputes take place between the employer(s) and the collective of the workers, typically represented by an employee organization (union) or a works council.
When a conflict or a dispute cannot be resolved through negotiation, the law offers dispute resolution mechanisms for the participants. Therefore, several legal mechanisms have been evolved in order to resolve disputes, starting from the classical form of litigation, where a court determines the end of the dispute by its judgement, and other alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as arbitration, mediation and conciliation, where the parties can reach a decision or a settlement outside of the judicial system of the state.
EU Member States have introduced various legislative rules for labor dispute resolution covering all manner of individual and collective disputes. ADR schemes are also supported by the ILO, as the ILO Recommendation No. 92 (1951) suggests that voluntary conciliation should be made available to assist in the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes between employers and workers. Within the aegis of the European Union, several instruments have emerged with the attempt to elaborate the basic principles for the operation of ADR schemes in the context of cases between businesses and consumers. The Directive 2013/11/EU on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the “ADR Directive”) and Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the “ODR Regulation”) ensured that consumers could turn to quality alternative dispute resolution entities for all kinds of contractual disputes with traders, and established an EU-wide online platform for consumer disputes that arise from online transactions with traders.
Workplace mediation is widely and successfully utilized in the USA for solely employment purposes both in the private and the public sector. Also, in the United States is a “employment at will” doctrine prevails, that basically means – unless stipulated to the contrary by the parties – the employment relationship can be terminated with immediate effect without any justification (just cause), thus workers do not have access to legal remedies as in the EU where the statutory laws provide a broad protection against arbitrary or unjust termination. Mediation, however, provide an effective solution for employees and workers, even if situated outside the protective scope of labor law.
While the role of customer/consumer ADR and mediation is increasing throughout the whole European Union, workplace and employment mediation still constitutes a “grey zone”. In many of the legal instruments of the EU and also in several products of the national legislations, consumers and workers are treated with the same legal awareness, thus protective laws compensate their weaker position in their legal relationships, but as far as the utilization and access of dispute resolution schemes are concerned, a significant but not always reasonable differentiation can be detected. Also, while mediation is an available tool for individual employment matters, still has not been utilized considerably, and remained an instrument only to resolve mostly collective conflicts. Therefore, the aim of this paper to present various styles of mediations from a comparative perspective, to express their biggest advantages and to highlight the areas where mediation could be more suitable to use in the context of the individual disputes of the workplace.
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Issues of the client status, the scope of appreciation and the legal consequences related to the procedures of the Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection
36-44Views:178This study focuses on the issues related to the procedures of the Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection. The article includes the main questions from the field of administrative law, such as the problems of the legal status of consumers and the use of sanctions. I used contextual and teleological methods of interpretation to demonstrate the problems and the possible solutions.
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The changes of the legal regime of tobacco advertisements in the laws of Hungary
Views:164Since the change of the regime the economic role of advertisements has changed significantly. Advertising forms a considerable part of economic activities, the cost of which constitute a growing portion of the expenses of a given enterprise. The mass-appearance of advertisements has altered the relationship between consumers and advertisers, it has restructured consumption habits and the importance of advertising in media.
The most significant modification of the Hungarian Advertising Act occurred by (Act I of 2001), which was in large passed with the consent of the advertising profession. The modification introduced the concept of deceptive advertisements, apparent comparative advertisements and special offers. Comparative advertisements were also regulated in a satisfactory way. However, several legal institutions were introduced as well, which should have been included in competition law. In the last two decades actions against unlawful advertisements were largely based on competition law, which restricts advertising activities violating fair competition in general. Advertising Decree and later the Advertising Act regulated the restriction of advertisements of certain goods and services, or defined the restrictions on certain advertising activities. Due to the modification, the role of Competition Act became less significant, since Advertising Act also contains most prohibitions on advertising activities that were defined in the Competition Act. In addition, in the case of violation of regulations on deceptive and comparative advertisements, Advertising Act denoted the Bureau of Competition and the court as chief acting powers, whereas the violation of rules on apparent comparative advertisements falls in the scope of the Consumer Protection Authority.
What is more, the (Act I of 2001) “smuggled” the entire prohibition of tobacco advertisements into the Advertising Act, which totally contradicted with the opinion of advertising profession. Thus Hungary, similarly to France, joined the strictest practice in this question. It is also disputable whether such restrictions promote the fight against smoking, and it was certainly disadvantageous that legislation decided in the question without involving the profession, for which there had been no precedents so far.
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Registration of sound trademarks in the context of the changes created by the EU trademark reform
Views:172One of the most significant changes brought about by the EU trade mark reform is the inclusion of new types of trade marks in the trade mark system. The category of sound marks was known before the trademark reform, but the main challenge for registration was the criteria of presentation. After the introduction of the EU trade mark reform, the absolute ground of non-distinctiveness may be the main obstacle, as the new rules ease the requirements for appearance, but the other basic condition for registration, the examination of distinctiveness, may be a challenge for the applicant. The ability of the consumer to identify the commercial origin of the product or service by means of a sound is a key factor in determining whether the sign is distinctive and able to become a registered trademark.
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The impact of inflation on private law relationships
45-72Views:409Not for decades have we seen price rises in Hungary, or in Europe and the world in general, such as those faced by the developed world in 2022. Inflation in Hungary was 24.5% in December 2022 and in January 2023, the indicator stood at 25.7%. This article provides a summary of the key concepts related to inflation, going beyond a definitional approach to inflation to cover its types and the most important principles and methods of measuring it. Economic foundations fundamentally determine private legal relations and legal institutions. In such a situation, crisis legislation is triggered, primarily in areas that have the greatest impact on the functioning of the economy and on consumers' daily lives. The present article reviews those important civil law structures and the rules governing them in the Civil Code and other statutory and governmental regulations, the content of which is justified to be amended in a persistent inflationary environment, but which have not been the focus of the legislator so far, emphasizing the need to adapt private law norms to the changed economic environment. The article examines those legal acts in which the legislator has set out in the text of the act data referring to value or price, nominally defining and quantifying in concrete terms the price or value that plays a significant role in a given private legal relationship. This type of legislation, however, does not take into account the changes in value relations at all, so that in an inflationary environment, the price and value figures nominally fixed in the private law norm are not adapted to economic processes, i.e. they are not in line with the current price level determined by economic fundamentals. The author outlines proposals and regulatory techniques for amending the law to adapt these legal provisions to the changed price and value conditions.
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Product warranty – a new legal institution in the protection of the consumer interest
2-7Views:102This study presents the product warranty, a new element of the Hungarian system of law. The author describes the main features of product warranty in comparison with warranty and product liability. The author states some comments on the regulation. In the end the importance of product warranty is presented by stating a case.
Egy új jogi szabályozás megjelenésekor adott a lehetőség az elméleti és gyakorlati szakemberek számára, hogy a korábbi normaszöveghez történő hasonlítással tárják fel és elemezzék a változásokat. A Polgári Törvénykönyvről szóló 2013. évi V. törvény (Ptk.) nem vitásan érinti a civiljog teljes spektrumát, új elemekkel frissítve a már kialakult magánjogi intézményrendszert. Jelen írás a termékszavatosság szabályainak elemző bemutatására tesz kísérletet.
A magyar jogi szabályozásban előzmények nélküli jogintézményről van szó, ezért a meghatározó jellemzők bemutatása más, a hibás teljesítéshez kapcsolódó jogintézményekhez történő hasonlítással történik meg. Ennek során a kiindulási alapot a hibás teljesítésből eredő igények „anyajogának” tekinthető kellékszavatosság jelenti, ezen túlmenően a hibás teljesítéssel okozott károk megtérítésére (a továbbiakban: kártérítés), valamint termékfelelősségre vonatkozó szabályok kapnak szerepet.
A termékszavatosságra vonatkozó rendelkezések a Ptk.-nak a kötelmi jogi szabályokat tartalmazó hatodik könyvében, annak XXIV. fejezetében, a hibás teljesítésre vonatkozó rendelkezéseknél szerepelnek a kellékszavatosságra és kártérítésére vonatkozó szabályokkal együtt. A hibás teljesítésből eredő fogyasztói igények körében további igényérvényesítési lehetőséget teremtő termékfelelősségi szabályok ettől eltérően a szerződésen kívül okozott kárért való felelősséggel szabályai között, a LXXII. fejezetben kaptak helyet.
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Historical overview of liability for materail effects and warranty regulations
13-24Views:230The liability of material effects and warranty are classic legal institutions of civil law and they are both important in the field of consumer law. The present study essentially considers the regulatory system of these jurisdictions in Hungary.
The review starts with the private-law cases, developed at the begining of the 20th century, wich legislative provisions finally remained outside of scope. Then the Code Civil of 1959 and the Code Civil of 2013 are assessed in the review. The study does not cover the examinition of the provisions of the lower level of legislation, such as the „ warranty based on legislation compulsorily”.
The essay focuses mainly on identifying the specifities, potential shortcomings and the shortcomings of the regulatory models used in our country. It also seeks to find the points of turn and the points of motivations, of legal policy that have made significant changes in the lives of the legal institutions.
On the bases of this reasoning, the next tematica is observed in the test. The first large structural element is described in a description of the 1900s, 1913 and 1928 private-law codices, wich have shown a significant similarity in terms of the legal institutions.
Then it follows with the introduction of Code Civil of 1959. The point of view of the legal intitutions the code was modified only two times during its long term. The first modification was in 1977, the secound in 2003 with regard to the harmonisation of European Union law.
Finally comes the summary of the current Code Civil, wich has enacted some innovations in the aspect of the topic. Altough previous legislation wich based on the harmonisation has not been required significant reforms.