- According to British law, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 defines a trader as follows: " A trader is a person who carries out purposes related to: the activities of that person's trade, business, craft, profession, whether by himself or by another person in the name of the trader or on behalf of the trader " [141]. British law defines a trader very narrowly, however, in the notes there is an explanation for individual traders. In some cases, the person who buys a printer and uses it 95% of the time for business purposes is not called a consumer [141]. Consider them as people who carry out business. For example: buying a photocopier to print documents for customers is not a consumer. For example, buying a refrigerator to store food for customers is also not a consumer.
- According to Portuguese law, " a supplier of goods and services is any natural person or legal entity, public or private, domestic or foreign, who carries out the production, assembly, creation, construction, import, export, distribution, or sale of products or services, or provides services " [142]. The law stipulates that for suppliers, it extends to many subjects, a supplier can carry out one of the above stages, then it is a supplier, or just needs to create products and goods, also becomes a supplier of goods. This definition also shows that a supplier of goods and services is any natural person or legal entity carrying out one of the chains in the production or sale of goods, provision of services.
- According to Canadian law in the province of Quebec, the Consumer Protection Act in Article 1
(g) states: “ A manufacturer is a person who carries out an operation in the process of assembling, producing, or consuming goods ”. i. A person who publicly declares that he or she is the manufacturer of the goods; ii. Where the manufacturer does not have a premises in Canada, a person who imports or distributes goods manufactured outside Canada, or a person who authorizes his or her trademark to be printed on the goods” [143]. This is also a special point of the law, firstly, it is enough to declare that he or she is the manufacturer, secondly, if the manufacturer does not have a premises, then printing a label on the goods becomes the manufacturer.
Maybe you are interested!
-
Perspectives on Improving the Quality of Law Application in Resolving Land Use Rights Disputes at the People's Court -
Resolving civil disputes about copyright in Court - 15 -
Quality of Law Application in Resolving Land Use Disputes at People's Courts -
Applying the law in resolving land use disputes at the People's Court - 9 -
Law on resolving land use disputes when couples divorce in Vietnam - 10
- According to Dubai law, according to the regulation governing the Federal Law No. 24 of 2006 on consumer protection in Article 1, it is stipulated that: " A supplier is a natural or legal person who provides services or information, or performs the production, distribution, transaction, sale, supply, or export of any goods or related to the production or business of the above-mentioned services " [144]. In particular, in Dubai, in addition to the supplier defined above, there is also a definition of a principal supplier. "A principal supplier is a manufacturer or supplier who provides goods and services to distributors, except for consumers". That is, only providing directly to distributors, and not providing directly to consumers.
- According to Ecuadorian law, the Consumer Protection Law 2000 Article 2 stipulates: “ A supplier is any natural or legal person, public or private (state-owned or private) who develops the production, manufacture, import, construction, distribution, rental or commercialization of goods, as well as the provision of services to users for payment ”. “This definition includes those who purchase goods and services, combine them into products (manufacture products), or adapt them for use in production processes, or transform them, as well as those who provide public services by way of authorization or concession” [145]. The law regulates and expands the work of specific traders: this provision includes state-owned or private companies that can also be suppliers and, in particular, for the issue of purchasing goods and using them in combination for production, they are also suppliers.
- According to Vietnamese law, for suppliers of goods and services, or generally called suppliers of goods and services including traders, there is an understanding as follows: according to the 2018 Vietnamese dictionary edited by Professor Hoang Phe, "A trader is a person who does business " [91, p.1236]. And " supply is to provide necessary things to meet the needs, usually of customers or of production . Supply of consumer goods. Supply of materials" [91, p.281]. So the supplier of goods and services is the person who provides necessary things including
goods and services to meet the needs of passengers or production. However, according to the spirit of the LBVQLNTD 2010 in Article 3, Clause 2, the provision of goods and services includes two service subjects: "organizations and business individuals". In this group of organizations and business individuals, there are two distinct types, the first type is traders, the second type is individuals who conduct independent and regular commercial activities and do not have to register for business.
- For traders, it is necessary to follow the provisions of the Commercial Law, because the LBVQLNTD 2010 does not have separate provisions.
- The conditions for a supplier of goods and services to become an organization or individual trading in goods and services are as follows: only need to perform one of the following stages or all stages prescribed by law to be called an organization or individual trading in goods and services. One is , performing some or all stages of the investment process, from the production of goods to the stage of consuming goods, or only producing goods, or only using and consuming goods on the market. Two is, the organization or individual only provides services on the market.
Third, the above organizations and individuals perform business-related activities for profit purposes.
- "Organizations and individuals trading in goods and services" of which there are two types. The first is traders and the second is not traders but individuals who conduct regular independent commercial activities without having to register for business.
The first type: traders according to the Commercial Law 2005 include: i, legally established economic organizations; ii, individuals conducting commercial activities independently, regularly and having a business registration [10]. The second type: "individuals conducting commercial activities independently and regularly and not having to register for business". Individuals only need to have independent commercial activities and must have regular elements to become individuals trading in goods and services. Business registration is not necessary for this subject.
In fact, there is still one subject that does not know which group to classify. In the case of individuals who conduct independent commercial activities but not regularly
If there is no business registration, is it considered an individual trading in goods and services? For example: an individual occasionally collects all the items that they do not use, they bring them out to sell for profit, but not regularly. In this case, it can be seen that not all times in consumer relations do the subjects appear clearly. So what is the above subject? According to the current regulations on consumer rights and obligations, this subject is not yet taken into account. However, it can be understood and inferred according to Vietnamese law as follows: if there is no regular nature, it will follow the Civil Law, if there is a regular nature, it will follow the Commercial Law.
Overview of the viewpoint of "goods and services suppliers" in consumer relations, it can be seen that each country and each author has their own viewpoints, however, the most common viewpoint today includes the following criteria: One is , the person providing services and goods to the main subject is the consumer. Two is , the person performing one of the production or consumption stages. Three is , for the purpose of profit. Four is, the person performing the purpose opposite to the consumer's purpose. Five is, the time spent using the product is more for business purposes. Six is, the person performing the purposes related to business and commercial activities. Seven is, considering business as the main occupation in the market. Eight is, the produced products can be brought to the market.
From the above concepts and analysis, we can define the supplier of goods and services as follows: a trader is a supplier of goods and services for purposes related to commercial activities for profit, not related to consumption purposes.
2.1.3. Characteristics of consumer relations
The characteristics of consumer relations are private relations between consumers and traders, formed mainly through sales contracts, and one party participating in this relationship is the consumer, the consumer plays the role of a special and indispensable subject. In the characteristics of consumer relations, there are exceptional characteristics of traditional civil relations such as: exceptional characteristics of the subject,
on the subject, on the issue of inequality, lack of freedom of contract, the application of general terms of transaction...
- Specificity of the subject: in consumer relations, consumers play a key role, different from other civil relations, once a purchase and sale transaction arises in consumption, one party must have the participation of the consumer, because consumers buy and/or use products, services, goods provided by the suppliers themselves. The consumer here is a special type of subject in consumer relations. As mentioned, according to the concept of countries, consumers can be legal entities or natural persons, or both, or simply natural persons, or include organizations [104, p.40], and specificity of the subject of regulation: the purchase and sale relationship between consumers and suppliers of goods and services is the subject of regulation of traditional Civil Law, and in particular, one of the main participants is the consumer [ 26, p.22]. In general, the traditional Civil Law is appropriate in regulating this private relationship because this relationship is a buying and selling relationship, a type of civil relationship. Determining this special type of subject plays an important role in the law to determine the subjects that are entitled to preferential treatment and protection, which has great significance in the application of the law, because the law tends to protect this special subject, this subject can always be violated by any supplier of goods and services.
- Specificity of the subject of the transaction : are legal goods, products, services (according to the regulations of each country). Meet the needs of daily life of users [ 26, p.23]. However, PLBVNTD 2010 does not mention the definition of what goods and services are, what goods and services are included, specifically what consumer goods are, what types of goods, and how services in consumption are understood. Determining what are legal goods and services in consumption is important in determining the subject of the transaction. Especially when using goods and services, they must be used for consumption purposes in daily life, not for purposes other than consumption, for example for business, resale.
- The specificity related to asymmetric information is shown : Consumers are forced to participate in a relationship of "asymmetric information" in today's society, consumers hardly have equal opportunities with traders of goods and services [86]. In consumer relations, specifically the relationship of buying and selling goods, suppliers always have an advantage over consumers, when persuading consumers to buy goods under the terms created by the suppliers themselves. Suppliers of goods and services, they have a high level of understanding of their own goods and services, while consumers do not understand as well as them. This is an asymmetric situation of the subjects participating in the transaction, including consumers and suppliers in terms of asymmetric information [104, p.41]. This asymmetric information is shown a lot in consumer relations. In fact, the “prevailing asymmetry of information” means that service providers or traders clearly know about their goods or services, or those they produce, while consumers do not know about the information about the goods or services of the manufacturer, or if they do, they do not know much [131, p.11]. The consultation of an individual consumer cannot be as good as an entire organization, an entire apparatus, with a structure and clear regulations when trading goods and services on the market to provide to consumers [26, p.24]. At the same time, in the buying and selling relationship, consumers are overwhelmed by “ no freedom of contract”. This is for traders, they have intentionally used their power to take away the freedom and voluntary performance of the contract of consumers. Violating the basic principles of the 2015 Civil Code, Article 3, K2, the right to freely and voluntarily commit and agree [6].
In general, suppliers of goods and services have a thorough understanding of the goods and services they produce, and a deep understanding of their products compared to consumers, who do not have a thorough understanding of the services, goods, or products of their suppliers.
For example, in one case, manufacturers and traders know their goods very well, they produce ice cream in which there is a substance extracted from the anal glands of beavers. Some Castoreum in the anal glands has created some special flavors.
such as vanilla, strawberry or raspberry [164]. Businesses know their products well, but when asked they seem reluctant to reveal them, while consumers do not know or know little. Example 2: pasta and some other foods have ingredients from coal. The yellow color from pasta is extracted from coal with the scientific name Tartrazine, which is also a substance found in dyes. It can affect children, and the consumer group believes that using Tartrazine will be harmful [165]. Another example: the animal protection group Peta warns that some wines contain a lot of bone marrow, milk protein, Chitin (fiber from the shells of crustaceans), Gelatin and Isinglass from fish bladders [166]. Manufacturers do not disclose information about the ingredients. They know clearly what ingredients their products contain, but consumers do not know.
- The specific nature of the negotiating capacity of the participating parties is not the same , " Inequality" shows that consumers are always in a weaker position than traders. In reality, the strong always bully the weak, for example: domestic consumers when buying goods with a "standard price or listed price" package, they do not have the opportunity to negotiate on price, cannot bargain [ 121, p.7]. In Vietnam, there are places of business that do not give consumers the opportunity to negotiate, for example: "no bargaining", or "no exchange or return for purchased goods", "no return for purchased goods".
Nowadays, goods and services are developing in a variety of ways, transaction methods and tricks are becoming more and more sophisticated, consumers cannot fully understand everything, even managers of goods and services find it difficult to foresee all problems. For the above reasons, suppliers of goods and services have used their knowledge and taken advantage of consumers' lack of knowledge to deprive consumers of their basic rights in contracts and their obligations. For example, currently, famous sales companies are advertised heavily on TV such as Shopee, or delivery companies such as "economical delivery", "Lazada". These companies all have regulations regulating that when goods are delivered to customers, customers are not allowed to check the goods they buy before receiving them. This is a regulation of
The company violated Article 9 of the 2010 Labor Code on the obligation to inspect goods before receiving them by consumers [13].
If consumers are knowledgeable about the law and require checking the goods before receiving them, the company still uses the power of the strong to declare that consumers are not allowed to check. Consumers are forced to use the above goods and services, they have no other choice. Consumers lose their freedom of contract, lose their basic rights and obligations. The above problem is difficult to solve without legal intervention. Consumers also cannot know everything themselves to foresee all events, and the Caveat Emptor principle is no longer suitable in practice [104, p.42]. The meaning of the maxim “Caveat Emptor” is “let the buyer beware” [139, p.245], which means “let the buyer beware” meaning that the buyer must beware and decide everything himself, and the buyer is forced to fulfill the commitment, according to the irrevocable principle (Pacta Sunt Servanda) from ancient Rome [27, p.22]. However, this maxim “Caveat Emptor” has not been suitable for a long time, according to Australian Senator Lionel Murphy, when introducing the Commercial Law, he stated that the principle of “Caveat Emptor” was not suitable for the situation at that time, only suitable for the village market model. Because the marketing of goods and services was carried out on a large scale, organized by well-trained executives, while consumers were not trained, consumers needed the law [151]. This principle is only suitable for small models and small transactions, so the law needs to demonstrate and promote its role more to protect the rights and interests of consumers.
The last feature is the application of general transaction conditions. According to the spirit of Vietnamese law on consumer protection, Vietnam has established: general transaction conditions with consumers are regulated by Decree 99/2011/ND-CP dated October 27, 2011, Chapter 3, Articles 7-16 on the control of standard contracts and general transaction conditions, on the content and scope of reviewing the content of standard contracts, general conditions must not be contrary to the LBVQLNTD 2010 [ 18], and the LBVQLNTD 2010 is regulated in Articles 16-19. Nowadays, standard contracts and the application of general transaction conditions are increasingly popular, specifically seen through types of contracts such as