business. Next, the National Consumer Institute can intervene. Finally, the law can intervene. In France, consumers can request the intervention of the National Public Prosecutor's Office.
1.2. China's experience in protecting consumer rights
The Price Law of China was passed by the Standing Committee of the 8th National People's Congress and approved by the President on December 29, 1997. The law aims to promote the role of prices in the rational distribution of material resources, stabilize market prices, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and business producers.
In order to prevent dishonest trading activities in the market that cause damage to consumers, Article 14 of the Law on Prices stipulates that enterprises are not allowed to conduct the following unfair pricing activities:
- Colluding with others to influence market prices, causing harm to the legitimate rights of consumers or other businesses;
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- Disrupting the price of goods to eliminate competitors or monopolize the market, disrupting production and business order, causing harm to the interests of the State and the legitimate rights of other enterprises;
- Fabricating and spreading news about price increases in order to increase real prices and causing the prices of goods to increase too high;
- Using false pricing principles to entice consumers or other businesses to cooperate in business with them;
- Applying price discrimination when providing the same goods or services to other businesses;
- Increase or decrease prices under disguise by changing the quality of goods and services;
- Make profit by violating laws and regulations.
- Other unfair pricing practices prohibited by law or administrative regulations.
Every year, more than 1 billion Chinese consumers choose March 15 as “God’s Judgment Day” - an international consumer day recognized by the world. On the night of March 15, 1991, Chinese people witnessed the first broadcast of the Central Television about counterfeit and substandard goods and the damage to consumers. Several factories producing poor quality goods were named and shamed. After that, many factories went bankrupt because stores and consumers boycotted their products. Nowadays, on this day, Chinese consumers often organize activities to protect consumer rights, exposing counterfeit and substandard goods from enterprises. Next, the Chinese Government issued the Commodity Quality Law in September 1993. At the same time, China annually organizes quality inspection teams, mainly composed of technical experts and journalists, to travel throughout the country to evaluate good products and expose factories that produce poor quality products.
China is a country with similar cultural, political and social circumstances to Vietnam, so it is very necessary to study the organizational model of Chinese consumer protection agencies. In particular, the Chinese Consumer Protection Law has just been issued (1994), compared to Vietnam's Consumer Protection Ordinance (1999), but China's achievements in this field are much greater than Vietnam's. That is because the Chinese consumer protection agency has greater authority than Vietnam. Their human resources and equipment are also more modern than ours. In addition, the network of Chinese consumer protection organizations operates very actively, effectively and is fully equipped with a wide range of activities. This has contributed to the socialization of consumer protection work in China achieving many successes. Researching China's consumer protection law will contribute to further improving Vietnam's consumer protection law, especially in the context of Vietnam's increasingly deep integration into the world economy.
1.3. US experience in protecting consumer rights
The Consumer Rights Protection Federation in the United States was established a long time ago with the organization's purpose of providing information and protecting consumer rights. Headquarters
The Federation, based in suburban New York, currently has hundreds of engineers working in many fields to test the quality, durability, and safety of goods, from which they can conclude whether the product is worth its price. The Federation's laboratory is equipped with modern facilities to ensure high accuracy for the experiments. Here, experts check everything from drawers that have been pulled out and closed thousands of times to determine the wear of the ball bearings, to analyze types of hand towels and paper handkerchiefs to see if they cause sneezing or allergies. Compare the noise level of vacuum cleaners or evaluate the quality of cars, sneakers, and even high-tech computers.
The results of the quality tests are published in the Consumer Report magazine. This magazine has more than 19 million readers. In addition, millions of people follow the activities of this organization through other printed materials or on the Internet. The Federation exists and develops thanks to the sales of the Consumer Report magazine and money donated by the public.
The Consumer Rights Federation has always been at the forefront of forums to fight for consumer power to improve the working environment and protect the environment. The Federation has published scientific works warning about the harmful effects of tobacco. A series of articles about the pollution of water pipes in the US has caused a big stir and the magazine “Consumer Report” has received many valuable awards.
Today, the Consumer Rights Federation has expanded its activities beyond the borders of the United States, calling for the protection of consumer rights globally.
1.4. Thailand's experience in protecting consumer rights
Thailand is one of the hot spots for counterfeit goods. At first, counterfeit goods still have value and even create adaptation for consumers. Later, counterfeit goods are used to make products that are dangerous to consumers and cause long-term harm to society such as fake medicines, fake foods, etc. Therefore, to deal with the situation of counterfeit goods here, the Thai Food and Drug Administration has issued a plan to stipulate rewards for those who report acts of counterfeiting, advertising and false information about the quality of goods. Accordingly, those
The complainant will be awarded 35% of the amount that the court decides to fine the organization or individual for counterfeiting.
The target of this plan is companies, organizations and individuals that produce counterfeit foods, medicines, cosmetics, medical devices and chemicals. Complainants have the right to claim compensation within 60 days after the court has issued a decision to punish the production of counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods.
Thailand Consumer Protection allows for two ways of negotiation when resolving consumer complaints. Preliminary negotiation by the Office of the Consumer Protection Commission staff or negotiation by the Complaint Negotiation Subcommittee (Contracts, Advertising and Labeling Negotiation Subcommittee) or the Consumer Complaint Review Subcommittee if the preliminary negotiation fails. And if the above mechanism fails, the matter will be referred to the Case Committee for further consideration.
1.5. Canada's experience in protecting consumer rights
In Canada, the Consumer Protection Office system operates very effectively. It is noteworthy that, although the Consumer Protection Offices are located in many different places, they are connected to each other via the Internet to share databases related to consumer protection. This allows the Consumer Protection Offices to easily grasp relevant information about the complained businesses and product information across the country to serve their consumer protection work. In addition, the Consumer Association also receives very positive support from the Government. Therefore, the Consumer Association operates very effectively and makes a very important contribution to consumer protection work in Canada.
Associations in Canada are easy to establish and represent consumers, so they play a very important role. Quebec alone has more than 30 specialized local associations, including an association to protect car buyers, an association to protect housewives, etc. These associations can form alliances to have a bigger voice. Consumer protection associations have the function of resolving complaints. If they see many people complaining about a product, these associations have the right to conduct an investigation. After the investigation, they can
the right to bring a case to court, requesting the prosecution of the enterprise. Based on the evidence, the court will decide whether to prosecute or not. When the court sentences the enterprise, these associations will monitor whether the court's decision is strictly followed.
In addition, Canadian law allows a person to file a class action lawsuit. This person will present evidence to prove that he or she has been harmed by a certain product. If the court finds that the argument is well-founded and that many people have been harmed as the individual, the court will issue the plaintiff a certificate of class action, which gives the plaintiff the right to represent all consumers who have been harmed. Consumer protection associations also have this right.
The association’s operating budget can come from member contributions, sponsorships, and activities that generate funds from the association’s own functions. Associations that provide consumer consulting services via phone can establish research topics to serve consumers, then resell the research results to the media or publish magazines for sale…
In addition, for online sales, the law requires that the parties to the transaction must disclose their identity and headquarters. To avoid the situation where the buyer pays but does not receive the goods, the Canadian government has set up a fund into which the purchase money will be transferred. Only after the buyer reports receipt of the goods will the money be transferred to the seller's account.
1.6. India's experience in protecting consumer rights
With the passage and implementation of the Consumer Protection Act in 1986 and its amendment in 2003, India is one of the countries that has achieved many successes in consumer protection. The Law's strict provisions on complaint settlement procedures, on the complaint process, on the establishment of consumer protection agencies are important bases for effective implementation of this work. According to a report by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution of India, every year, throughout India, about 7,000 - 8,000 consumer complaints are resolved. Successful resolution of consumer complaints contributes to building a fairer society, creating a healthier business culture in the context of a developing country.
developing with a large population like India. The Indian model is an important lesson when Vietnam builds the Consumer Protection Law in the future.
1.7. Lessons learned for Vietnam
All of the above experiences are very useful lessons for Vietnam in the process of researching and perfecting Vietnam's consumer protection laws.
Malaysia and Indonesia both enacted the Consumer Protection Law at the same time as Vietnam (in 1999), while Thailand enacted this Law earlier (in 1979). However, the laws and organizational structures of these countries are much more complete than those of Vietnam, and their laws allow the establishment of a consumer protection agency with a fairly large position and authority. The establishment of a National Council (or Committee) on consumer issues is very necessary. In Vietnam, the current law has not yet regulated or permitted this issue. A National Council consisting of representatives from many relevant agencies and organizations and given great authority will ensure the resolution of many complex issues involving many different ministries and sectors. Furthermore, this agency will better perform its role of coordinating and intervening more deeply in issues related to consumers, something that the Vietnamese consumer protection agency has not really done well. In addition, the laws of all countries allow for an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. In Vietnam, there are currently no specific regulations on this mechanism. Therefore, in reality, it is very difficult for consumers to fully protect their rights when the path to dispute resolution through filing a lawsuit is complicated, costly, and there is still a great fear among consumers.
In Vietnam today, the law has not yet recognized the right of consumers to file a collective lawsuit in cases related to consumers. The reality of recent cases such as the case of soy sauce containing 3-MCPD, gasoline containing acetone, etc. shows that the issue of gathering consumers to file a complaint is very important. Because, each individual consumer will have difficulty in filing a lawsuit to protect their rights. Besides, in many cases, the value of each consumer's complaint is insignificant but the damage to society and the long-term effects are very large (such as the case of soy sauce containing 3-MCPD).
Therefore, if there is no regulation on a collective lawsuit mechanism, not only will it not protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and the whole society, but it will also not ensure deterrence for violating businesses.
In developed countries, we can draw some assessments and lessons as follows:
Firstly , the laws of these countries clearly stipulate and predict situations and forms of trading to keep up with current trends. For example, consumer protection for new forms of business has been specifically regulated by the consumer protection laws of these countries such as: business forms via the internet, sales by phone, home delivery...
Second , for contracts for the sale of goods, the laws protecting consumers in these countries provide very specific regulations right from the stage of signing the contract. In Vietnam, contracts are regulated in the Vietnamese Civil Law and then the Commercial Law. However, the Civil Law and the Commercial Law only provide regulations on contracts in general, not specifically. Furthermore, contracts in which consumers are a party are special contracts. The parties to the contract have an unbalanced position because consumers are always in a weaker position. Vietnamese law only regulates invalid contracts when there is deception, confusion, etc.
Third , the organizations specializing in protecting consumer rights are fully equipped with infrastructure to independently inspect the quality of goods and services on the market, not just limited to the scope of resolving consumer complaints. Therefore, the consumer protection activities of these organizations are a closed and proactive process, so they are very effective.
In addition, creating direct benefits for participants in the fight against counterfeit goods to increase their active participation in this work is an idea that we can learn from Thailand. In addition, the establishment of separate courts specializing in handling consumer complaints is also necessary because this will help consumers have a more stable and confident mentality when deciding to file a complaint, and will also form a team of human resources with deep expertise in this field.
2. Some solutions to strengthen consumer rights protection in Vietnam
2.1. Solutions from the State
2.1.1. Strengthen and improve consumer protection laws and consumer protection courts.
In order to better implement consumer protection work, it is necessary to soon promulgate the Consumer Protection Law, which specifically stipulates: the coordination mechanism between departments and branches, it is necessary to stipulate a focal unit to coordinate with related departments at the central and local levels; there is financial support for the establishment and operation of the association because this is a special association that does not collect fees from members and protects more than 80 million people; a simple complaint settlement mechanism with strong enough sanctions should be introduced for higher enforcement.
In addition, state agencies need to take stronger action and have stronger inter-sectoral coordination. Currently, there is a situation where ministries and sectors often blame each other and rely on each other, so it is necessary to increase surprise inspections.
In addition, instead of granting licenses to production and business establishments that do not meet the conditions and then conducting inspections, for certain types of food with high risks of unsafety, state agencies must be proactive from the beginning, must come to inspect and check, and only when conditions are met will they grant licenses to allow food production and business. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen inspection and control of the business process from the production stage until it is put on the market.
2.1.2. Propaganda and education, improving consumers' self-protection ability
Consumer education is an extremely important part of consumer rights protection activities, helping them improve their ability to protect themselves. The content of education must include the legal rights of consumers, ways for consumers to protect themselves when their rights are violated, as well as supplementing knowledge about consumption.