AMCHAM NEWS
Improvements Needed to Macedonia's Consumer
Protection and Competition Approach
Author: Michelle Osmanli, Executive Director, AmCham Macedonia
The rather outdated, inefficient and ambiguous Macedonian consumer protection
framework creates an inconsistent marketplace for consumers and companies alike.
Thus, many companies are
calling for improvements in
the legal framework, to foster an environment where
all businesses are expected
to consistently comply with
higher standards and consumers have the power and protection they deserve.
At a recent AmCham roundtable with over 40 companies, the State Market Inspectorate (SMI) and Consumer Protection Organizations
from across the country, there was a strong sense of
regulatory confusion among all stakeholders. Problematic aspects mentioned by participants included:
• the requirement for companies to replace defective
products with “new, same, functional” ones;
• the role and responsibilities of authorized service
representatives;
• the definition of “servicing” a product;
• the meaning of “minimal” product shortcomings;
• the very restrictive and outdated types of allowed
sales/discounts;
• the purpose of the Law on “Unfair Competition”
(Закон за нелојална конкуренција);
• lack of clarity on the treatment of services under
the current consumer protection framework; and
• the role of SMI in the financial services sector.
The group agreed that companies needed to be more
involved in shaping the consumer protection regulatory framework. While the Consumer Protection Law
was changed twice just last year, none of the changes
addressed fundamental market challenges or helped to
relieve current regulatory confusion. It seems that consumer protection has generally suffered from lack of
institutional attention for quite some time and probably for various reasons. For example, Marijana Loncar
Velkova, President of Macedonia’s Consumer Protection Organization said the requirement for all food and
beverages to be labeled with nutritional information had
been delayed several times due to the lack of preparedness of local food and beverage producers.
Continued on page 34
28 Spring 2016 Issue 49