Suchen

Ergebnis der Suche

• Skócia és Anglia – reform a tisztességtelen kereskedelmi gyakorlatok terén

  35-42

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  73

  After 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.

• A személyiségi jogok védelme a reklámtörvény tükrében

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  92

  There 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.

• A felszolgálási díj szabályozásáról az alapvető jogok biztosának eljárása kapcsán

  19-40

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  193

  The 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.

• Pénzügyi fogyasztóvédelem és pénzügyi kultúra

  38-48

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  189

  A 2008-as globális gazdasági válság rávilágított arra, hogy a pénzügyi szolgáltatók és fogyasztók közötti információs aszimmetriára és a fogyasztók kiszolgáltatottságára tekintettel, utóbbiak védelme érdekében azonnali intézkedésekre van szükség. Előtérbe került a pénzügyi fogyasztóvédelem, amely ugyan a jognak egy viszonylag új területe, de mára már igen számottevő szerepet harcolt ki magának. A jelentősége pedig napról-napra egyre csak nő.

   

  Sajnos azonban a magyar lakosság pénzügyi kultúrája rendkívül alacsony. Ez jelentős kockázatokat hordoz magában, hiszen az alacsonyabb pénzügyi ismeretekkel rendelkező állampolgárok rendszerint kevésbé aktívak a gazdasági életben és tömegesen hoznak számukra nyilvánvalóan kedvezőtlen döntéseket. A pénzügyi kultúra fejlesztése tehát elengedhetetlen.

   

  A pénzügyi tudatosság meglátásom szerint elsődlegesen a pénzügyi ismeretekre vonatkozó tudásanyag átadásával és terjesztésével, azaz az oktatással fejleszthető a leghatékonyabb módon. Az oktatással elsődlegesen a legfiatalabb generációkat kellene célozni, és a gyermekek oktatására kellene a fő hangsúlyt fektetni, hiszen a gyerekek rendkívül fogékonyak az új ismeretek elsajátítására, és ők fogják a legjelentősebb hatást gyakorolni a jövőre. Ha pedig a pénzügyi tudatosságra nevelés már egészen fiatal korban elkezdődik, akkor mire ezek a gyerekek felnőnek, addigra már rutin-szerűen fognak tudatos pénzügyi döntéseket hozni, így a következő generáció már úgy nőhet fel, hogy képes megfelelően „bánni a pénzzel”.

• Ügyfél jogállás, bizonyításos mérlegelés és a megállapított jogkövetkezmények funkcióinak egyes kérdései a fogyasztóvédelmi hatóság eljárásában

  36-44

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  101

  This 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.

• Gondolatok az európai szerződési jog új irányairól

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  49

  On 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.

• Possibilities of workplace mediation in the European Union

  1-13.

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  374

  The 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.

• Termékszavatosság – egy új jogintézmény a fogyasztói érdekek védelmében

  2-7

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  48

  This 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.

• A dohányreklámok szabályozásának változásai a magyar jogban

  Views:

  54

  Since 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.