Translated material
Consumer Doomsday
Defenders of citizens' rights are sorting out relations with the Moscow mayor's office and among themselves
The decree of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, according to which until the end of the year government agencies are prohibited (and public organizations are not recommended) from conducting inspections of small and medium-sized businesses, may be challenged in court. On the eve of World Consumer Day, which is celebrated annually on March 15, the organization “Public Control” - one of the structures that claims to represent the interests of Russian consumers - distributed a message that a lawsuit had been filed with the Moscow City Court, in which the capital government was the defendant. According to the plaintiffs, the decree signed by Mr. Luzhkov on February 10 clearly violates the legally guaranteed right of consumers to protection by government authorities. “Given that no other effective forms of control over business activities exist in Russia, we can say that now the end consumer remains defenseless,” Dmitry Lesnyak, a representative of the consumer rights protection society Public Control (OZPP), said last Friday.According to the head of the OZPP, Mikhail Anshakov, “Yuri Mikhailovich took the call of President Dmitry Medvedev too literally to “stop creating a nightmare for business” and overdid it in his efforts to fulfill it.” “Nobody gives a nightmare to business,” Mr. Anshakov is sure, “but now business has the opportunity to uncontrollably create a nightmare for the consumer.”
The OZPP believes that the decision of the capital’s authorities to ban inspections of small and medium-sized businesses does not in fact protect entrepreneurs, but creates competitive advantages for unscrupulous businessmen who “make profit from violating consumer rights.” And, according to representatives of Public Control, more than 1 million such violations are recorded in Moscow every day: “cheating, deceiving consumers, providing false information about a product, selling expired products and products of dubious quality.” “The priority task of the state should be to protect the rights of citizens, including consumer rights, but now we see that there is a tendency to protect primarily the interests of business to the detriment of the interests of citizens,” Mikhail Anshakov, head of the Public Control Organization, told reporters.
Let us note that OZPP is now suing not only the Moscow authorities, but also its colleagues - consumer rights defenders. On Saturday, the next meeting of the Moscow Arbitration Court took place on the claim filed by the OZPP against the Union of Consumers of the Russian Federation (SPRF). The reason for the litigation is quite old: about two years ago, one of the forum participants wrote on the SPRF website that “Public Control” was allegedly a “recipient of Western grants,” which, according to the OZPP, was an insult to the organization’s business reputation. On March 5, co-chairman of the SPRF Evgeniy Myasin was brought in as a co-defendant in the case.
On the eve of the court hearing, last Friday, Mr. Massine, speaking to reporters, shared his thoughts on the situation of consumers during the crisis. “Food products are still in first place in terms of the number of violations,” Myasin cited data from a survey conducted by the SPRF, from which it follows that during the year, 83% of Russians encountered violations of their consumer rights, with an average of up to three per person. such violations. “Indicators of very high concern among Russians about rising prices for meat (71%), dairy products (about 50%), and bread (43%) indicate that Russia is a poor country,” noted another participant in the press conference , Chairman of the Board of the International Confederation of Consumer Societies (ConfOP) Dmitry Yanin. More than half of the population felt an increase in prices for basic food products, which, according to official statistics, amounted to 25% year on year, Mr. Yanin emphasized. “If this growth continues,” he added, “then rising food prices will become the number one issue.” “The second place in terms of the number of complaints from the population is occupied by trade in non-food products - the number of recorded violations in this area increased by 8% over the year. Housing and communal services occupy third place,” noted co-chairman of the SPRF Evgeniy Myasin, again turning to the data of the annual survey.
According to Dmitry Yanin, the first year of the crisis, 2008, “was a shock for the population.” “The biggest blows for citizens were two circumstances: the fall of the ruble and the unprecedentedly high rise in food prices,” emphasized the chairman of the board of ConfOP. In fact, these two events are still having a fairly serious impact on the consumer market. “We are observing a trend associated with a reduction in public spending on goods, work, and services, and we predict that 2009 will be quite difficult for an entire sector of industries: the tourism market, air travel, and the car sales market,” said Mr. Yanin.
Of particular concern to the leadership of ConfOP is the fact that the legislation designed to protect consumer rights, to put it mildly, is far from perfect and is replete with gaps. “Unfortunately, the State Duma and the Federation Council have not paid enough attention to lending to the population over the past ten years,” Mr. Yanin reproached the legislators. “So, no law has been adopted regulating consumer lending, there is no law that would regulate the activities of collection agencies (firms specializing in debt collection. - Ed.). There is no legal protection for holders of plastic cards - both debit and credit - from fraud, listed the head of the board of ConfOP. “All this allows us to conclude that consumer protection in the financial services market does not meet European standards.”
Paradoxically, the crisis can also serve a good purpose - it will push the State Duma to adopt laws “that would truly protect the rights of consumers,” Yanin noted. First of all, these are laws that relate to the protection of the rights of borrowers: “People who have taken out loans and now find themselves without work are in the most difficult situation.” “We hope that the Duma will adopt legislation regulating the activities of collectors,” expressed the wish of the head of ConfOP. “In the USA, for example, a collection agency is prohibited from informing the workplace that their employee is a debtor, and it is prohibited to put pressure on family members, not to mention using forceful methods of influence.” Returning to the topic of borrowers and their rights, Mr. Yanin noted that the state of protection of citizens in the field of financial services is adequate to the level of protection that was in the United States about 70 years ago. “Therefore, we urge people not to take out new loans under any circumstances, close current loans and try to save,” warned the chairman of the board of ConfOP to Russians suffering from the consequences of the crisis.