Website of the Consumer Protection Committee
By Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated June 17, 2019 No. 17, the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan transferred the functions and powers to protect consumer rights. In order to implement this decree, the Committee for Consumer Protection was established by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 497 dated July 10, 2019.
The main mission of the Committee is the formation of a holistic and effective policy in the field of consumer protection (Regulations on the Committee and its territorial divisions approved by the Order of the Acting Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 25, 2019 No. 7).
The Committee has two main tasks defined:
1) implementation of intersectoral coordination of the activities of state bodies to ensure the implementation of state policy in the field of consumer protection;
2) ensuring the implementation of state policy in the field of consumer protection.
The Committee has 17 territorial departments in the regions, with a staff strength of 64 units (17 units – the central office, 47 units - territorial departments).
Unified information system for consumer protection https://e-tutynushy.kz/main
The need to create a unified information system for receiving complaints in the field of consumer protection is due to its social role, since the concentration of all consumer protection measures in one place will ensure quick and unhindered consumer access to any information related to its effective protection.
In this regard, the Unified Information System proposes to provide for the placement of a number of standard complaint forms, depending on the subject of the dispute, lists of representatives of legitimate interests (public associations of consumers, associations (unions), lawyers, legal consultants) and subjects of pre-trial settlement of consumer disputes (arbitration, mediation, public consumer associations, associations (unions) and SROs).. The EIS will also include a list of all GO's and their areas of regulation in the field of consumer protection.
The main differences of this system will be the connection of non-governmental organizations (subjects of pre-trial settlement, representatives of legitimate consumer interests) and businesses to the Unified Information System to track their conflicts with consumers; the formation of statistics: by industry, by subject of dispute, by subjects considering disputes; monitoring and evaluation of the activities of non-governmental organizations, as well as government agencies.
The involvement of businesses in this system will allow entrepreneurs to resolve the issue of consumer complaints on their own, or through the use of the institute of pre-trial regulation, which will lead to the preservation of the business reputation by improving the quality of goods and services, modernizing and improving production, reducing the cost of dispute resolution in court.
It is planned to connect the 17th, a large number of public associations, mediators, arbitrations, SROs and business entities.
Considering that in 2018 and 2019, 30-40 thousand consumer complaints were received, when non-governmental organizations and business entities are connected to this system, the number of complaints will increase.
Expected results from automation
The concentration of all consumer protection measures in one place will simplify the procedure for preparing complaints and sending them to the competent authorities.
The results of the complaint review will be returned to the Unified Information System for generating statistics and analytics.
Thus, based on the information received by the EIS, the authorized body will be able to:
- generate statistics by industry, subject of dispute, subjects of consideration, etc.;
- monitor and evaluate the activities of government agencies and consumer protection institutions and their representatives in the field of consumer protection;
- to assess the requirements set by government agencies for business activities, to the level of risk of violated consumer rights.
An analysis of complaints in the field of consumer protection will be submitted annually to the Interdepartmental Council for Consumer Protection.