Amendments to the law - for the benefit of consumers

On September 21, 2021, a meeting was held under the leadership of Minister of trade and integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov. An important point of discussion was the development of the 2nd package of amendments to the law of the Republic of Kazakhstan" on consumer rights protection".
Chairman of the Committee for Consumer Protection Askar Tynysbekov made a report on this issue.
According to him, the state policy is designed to protect the consumer as a weak side in trade and market relations.
For this purpose, in 2020, the 1st package of amendments to the law was developed and approved. However, the practical use of updates has caused problems.
First of all, it is the imperfection of the 3-step algorithm for processing consumer complaints.
"According to the Supreme Court, consumers are obliged to go through the first two stages of the three-stage mechanism before applying to the court: the seller and the state body. In this regard, the court's claims to consumers who have not passed these two stages of pre - trial settlement of a consumer dispute have become more frequent," Askar Stanislavovich said.
He cited statistics that for 5 months of 2021, 916 claims were filed in consumer dispute courts. Of these, 339 or 37% were returned to pre-trial settlement in Phase 1, and 235 or 26% were returned with reference to the need to contact the committee.
Also, the list of problems includes incomplete coverage of the types of consumer rights violations included in the code of administrative offences, which are used by unscrupulous entrepreneurs.
In addition, public control is not effective enough, since associations are not given the function of conducting a control purchase of samples of goods in order to assess its safety and quality.
There are gaps in the legal field of e-commerce. Consumers are often exposed to fraud when paying for goods via the internet, which requires legislative regulation of trade turnover in social networks.
Taking into account the current situation, the committee has developed advisory documents for the 2nd package of amendments to legislative acts on consumer rights protection, which are posted on the portal of open NPAs for public discussion. We invite you to leave your suggestions by following the following links: https://legalacts.egov.kz/npa/view?id=11369456#leave-npa-comment ; https://legalacts.egov.kz/npa/view?id=11372084 ; https://legalacts.egov.kz/npa/view?id=11372407 ; https://www.nur.kz/preview/1931264/e6768474292ecd92074faeb1ca65ef41c79909aea5c1ba11f8fd090b8cc0f52382f2aaaef8fb9e65d6015a72ef71a2f164601e5c53865533b87063c8a0d88b25/ ). In addition, on October 8 of this year, it is planned to hold debates with Target groups that can participate by submitting an application in accordance with Paragraph 22 of the rules of legislative work of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, approved by the resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 29, 2016 No. 907 (link: https://adilet.zan.kz/rus/docs/P1600000907 ).
The chairman of the committee noted that the development of the 2nd package of the general law provides for a legislative basis for the functioning of a single national non-profit organization for the protection of consumer rights on the basis of voluntary membership. This will lead to the consolidation of Public Associations scattered throughout the country into a systematized, material and normative-strengthened non-governmental organization for consumer protection.
It is also planned to introduce the Institute of the Ombudsman for consumer protection, extend the basic principles of the law to the areas of Public Utilities, Financial, medical, tourist and other services. It is necessary to review the three-stage mechanism, establish clear legal regulation of the sale of goods in electronic commerce. In order to eliminate legal gaps that negatively affect law enforcement practice, it is important to ensure the participation of NGOs in the development and approval of draft normative legal acts.
"The proposed amendments to the law will have a positive effect on ensuring consumer satisfaction, creating a social balance. Public confidence in the institutions of state power will increase. Legislative consolidation of the developed innovations will bring the system of consumer rights protection to a higher quality level and lead to positive changes in the life of Kazakhstanis," Tynysbekov Askar said.