Companies discouraged from including abusive clauses in contracts with consumers

The companies will not have the right to include abusive clauses in the contracts signed with the consumers, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a bill with amendments to the law on consumer protection approved by the Government. A contract clause is not directly negotiated with the consumers and it creates considerable imbalance between the rights and obligations of the parties. If the company claims that a pre-formulated standard clause was negotiated directly with the consumer, it must provide evidence. If the contract clauses are unclear, they will be interpreted in favor of the consumer. Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said the amendments transpose the European directives on consumer protection to the national legislation. Such terms as consumer, consumer rights and abusive clause are defined in accordance with the European norms. There are also new phrases like “disloyal commercial practices”. The bill specifies the duties of the Agency for Consumer Protection that is to be founded instead of the Main State Inspectorate for Market Surveillance, Metrology and Consumer Protection. It will impose penalties on the companies that will violate consumers' rights. The Inspectorate does not have such a right. It only ascertains the violations. Other amendments refer to the criteria that the public consumer associations must meet to benefit from financing from the state, the correct marking of prices on goods, the use of mediation as alternative in resolving disputes, etc. Valeriu Lazar said the implementation of the proposed amendments will contribute to better protection of the consumer rights in Moldova.