Bill drafted to protect consumers’ rights in Georgia

Georgian Parliament’s European Interrogation Committee drafted a bill to protect Georgian consumers and prevent violations from repeating the Georgian Parliament’s press office reports.

The bill will be discussed and then voted in Parliament.

The bill reads that a consumer, who believes that his/her rights were violated, will be able to address Georgia’s Competition Agency, which will be obliged to study a possible violation.

If the violation is revealed, the agency will give time to a trader to address and improve the flaw, or suspend the activity, violating consumers’ rights.

If such demands are ignored, a violator will have to pay a fine.

The fine must not be more than two percent of the annual turnover of the previous year of the trader.

If the violation is re-repeated in a year time, fine will be doubled.

Generally accepted basic consumer rights are right to safety: protection from hazardous goods.

Right to be informed: availability of information required for weighing alternatives, and protection from false and misleading claims in advertising and labeling practices.

Right to choose: availability of competing goods and services that offer alternatives in terms of price, quality, service.

Right to be heard: assurance that the government will take full cognizance of the concerns of consumers, and will act with sympathy and dispatch through statutes and expeditious and straightforward administrative procedures.