AMCHAM NEWS
Those present also concluded that the current
framework fails to strike a balance between consumer rights and obligations. Clearly, consumers
need to protect themselves from abusive companies. A transparent, good faith
and predictable dispute resolution mechanism would allow both consumers and
companies to present and protect their interests.
Improvements Needed...
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Today, consumers can file formal complaints with the SMI without ever informing the company or authorized service provider. Rather than applying their
limited resources to higher priority enforcement activities, SMI wastes time
investigating and reporting on cases that companies would have addressed without their involvement. The unnecessary involvement of SMI also absorbs company resources.
The requirement that SMI investigate every consumer complaint filed, regardless
of its merit or value, was also highlighted as wasteful and unrealistic. Marijana
Loncar Velkova, President of Macedonia’s Consumer Protection Organization,
said that mediation played a much more important role in EU countries and that
State enforcement authorities were only involved in very large and problematic
cases. Such a model would certainly make more sense that burdening SMI with
thousands of inconsequential cases and insufficient people and technology to
process them all.
Legal experts explained that Macedonian Competition Law should be understood as the B2B side of consumer protection. Speakers stressed that companies must seek legal redress for unfair competitive practices in order for the
legal framework to function properly. Until now, companies have brought very
few cases, thus practical application of the law is largely lacking. There was a general sense in the group that this law is not well known or understood among
business people, with the exception of utility companies and similar. The group
also debated whether a dedicated law on advertising may be needed, as in many
other markets, given the need for precise definitions and practical details in this
area.
In order to further explore the many areas in need of improvement from a practical business perspective, AmCham plans to organize meetings with the Ministry of Economy, the ministry responsible for many of the laws that govern this
important area. Our hope is that leading companies will be seen as a valuable
resource toward raising local standards. Instead, these same companies often
feel targeted by local enforcement authorities for constant inspections and fines
for minor shortcomings, while much more serious and obvious competitor violations are ignored. This approach leads to unfair competition that punishes companies that are genuinely working to comply with the law while rewarding those
with lower consumer protection standards. In the long run, this will lead to the
disappearance of many global, high quality brands from the local marketplace.
NEW MEMBER HIGHLIGHT
Cevahir Holding is an international construction,
tourism and property development company
that also has activities in mining industry.With
over 50 years of experience in Turkey, Lybia and Saudi Arabia; the company is continuing
its operations since 2011 in Skopje, Macedonia with two large-scale property
development projects called Cevahir Sky City and Sun City. Cevahir Holding is 100%
privately owned and repr