How do recreation areas infringe on the rights of consumers?

They told the Committee for Consumer Protection of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

On the eve of the summer holidays and vacations season, the Committee is increasingly being approached with questions about the conditions that declare recreation areas to the consumer to prohibit entry into its territory with their food and drinks.

Ramazan Barenov, Head of the Department for the Formation of State Policy of the Committee, reports the following: «Any legally purchased drinks and food are the private property of the consumer, and no one can restrict him in this (Parts 1 and 3 of Article 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan)».

Everyone has the right to freely enter the recreation area with food and drinks if he has purchased a ticket or paid for admission to its territory by receiving a payment receipt, since this is already a form of a concluded contract (Article 394 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

In addition, it is not permissible to prohibit a consumer from entering a recreation area on the grounds of having food and drinks with him in accordance with paragraph 3) paragraph 2 of Article 8-1 of the Law on Consumer Protection, since this action is forcing the consumer to additionally buy food and drinks on its territory.

Such restrictions, whether they are oral or written, are invalid, as they are prescribed in the above article of the Law.

According to pp. 3) Article 24 of the Law, the entrepreneur is obliged to provide the consumer with free access to the territory of the recreation area with all the property that is available and acquired legally, if things do not violate moral principles, etc., especially such a ban is not permissible if such goods are sold on the territory of the recreation area itself.

In the presence of the stated composition of the offense, the consumer can directly contact the territorial department of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition to bring to justice an unscrupulous entrepreneur under Part 2 of art. 163 The Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses, according to which a fine is provided from 200 Monthly calculation index to 1500 Monthly calculation index, or the territorial Department of Trade and Consumer Protection of the Ministry of Trade and Integration for advice and legal assistance as an intersectoral coordinator in the field of consumer protection on this issue.

In addition to this, it is important to emphasize that the prohibition of using food and drinks purchased by the consumer from other entrepreneurs is an anticompetitive action of the recreation area (paragraphs 1, paragraphs 6) and 8) of paragraph 2 of Article 177 of the Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

«It should be noted that at present, the Committee for Consumer Protection of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan will introduce work to supplement sanctions in the Administrative Code for conditions in the contract (oral or written) that violate or infringe on the rights of consumers in order to directly bring unscrupulous entrepreneurs to administrative responsibility», – he added.