Vartotojų skundų nagrinėjimas

Abstract

Consumer disputes may be resolved either in courts or using various out of court procedures. Taking into consideration that most consumer disputes are of limited economic value in relation to the costs of legal representation, the out of court procedures are of utmost importance in settling consumer disputes. This chapter deals with out of court consumer dispute resolution paying particular attention to the system applied in Lithuania. This forms first and most extensive part of the chapter, listing and analyzing the out of court institutions as well as procedures laid down for each institution. The next section deals with the proposed reform of the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights that shall establish the new procedure on out of court consumer disputes resolution. This section scrutinizes the proposals of non-governmental consumer protection organizations for the new legislation as well as analyses the possible impact of the proposed law to the current system of consumer dispute resolution. The last section deals with the European Union legislation on out of court consumer dispute resolution. This section elaborates the most important principle les that shall be used in out of court consumer dispute resolution. Communication from the Commission of 30 March 1998 on the out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes, Commission Recommendation of 30 March 1998 on the principles applicable to the bodies responsible for out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes (98/257/EC) as well as Communication from the Commission on widening consumer access to alternative dispute resolution and Commission Recommendation of 4 April 2001 on the principles for out-of-court bodies involved in the consensual resolution of consumer disputes not covered by Recommendation 98/257/EC are covered in detail.