Public debate on the Draft Law on Consumer Protection should be extended

15.8.2025.

As a member of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union for Chapter 28: Consumer and Health Protection - in whose work we actively participate, we point out that it is necessary to extend the Public Debate on the Draft Law on Consumer Protection, and to organize more public events as part of it (it would be desirable, among other things, to organize an event in Niš).

We remind you that the Public Hearing opened on August 4 and will end on August 24. Only one public event was planned and held: the Presentation of the Draft Law in the premises of the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade. The issue of the proposal to amend the current provision on the implementation of the law, which is in the provision of Article. 4th. The first draft envisions the primacy of applying special regulations that share the same goal and regulate the relationship between consumers and traders, concerning the rules of the Law on Consumer Protection. The current law, however, foresees the application of special regulations only if they provide a higher level of protection of consumer rights.

Read the full statement of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union for Chapter 28: Consumer and Health Protection: Statement from today’s meeting of the NCEU Working Group for Chapter 28 – Consumer Protection and Health Protection

The Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union for Chapter 28 – Consumer Protection and Health Protection requests an extension of the public debate on the Draft Law on Consumer Protection, which was announced and scheduled for the period from August 4 to August 24, to allow the public to become better acquainted with the proposed new legal solutions, which cannot be adequately considered and discussed at this moment.

The sudden introduction of a completely new draft law, although the current Consumer Protection Law was adopted in 2021, during the summer holiday period, with the central event organized on the second day of the public debate instead of towards its end, as is customary, raises many doubts regarding the real motives and intentions of the proponents of the law.

The proposal is to extend the public debate until the end of September this year, particularly bearing in mind certain contentious provisions that are already evident at this point.

Special attention was drawn to the proposal to amend the current provision on the application of the law, which in Article 4, paragraph 1 of the draft provides for the primacy of applying special regulations that have the same objective and regulate the relations between consumers and traders, over the rules of the Consumer Protection Law. The current law, however, stipulates the application of special regulations only if they provide a higher level of protection of consumer rights.

According to the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade, at the presentation of the draft law, this amendment is related to legal harmonization with a relevant European Union directive, although it was not specified which one. We assume it refers to the provision of Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, which regulates the relationship between that directive and other EU acts, but which, however, does not interfere with the application of regulations at the national level.

The incorrect legal reception of this provision in the draft law has the legal consequence that the statutory rules on consumer protection can be derogated by any other regulation, including decrees and rulebooks in sectoral areas or even regulations of local self-government units. Whether this is a case of unskilled transposition or an effort to accommodate the special interests of traders in certain sectors cannot currently be reliably determined.

However, the effect of such a provision is clear: it undermines the prescribed legal rules and the consumer protection system as a whole, introduces sectoral particularism, and renders meaningless any efforts to harmonize substantive consumer law with European law and to improve the rules and instruments of consumer legal protection.

This issue demonstrates the importance of a more detailed and substantive debate on the proposed new legal solutions – and that requires proper timing.