EU – Baltic States, Retail

Inese Vaidere (New Unity), member of the EP Internal Market and Consumer Protection, Committee told LETA that passing of the report was an important step toward eliminating unfair commercial practices as the EP managed to prevent producers from treating Eastern European consumers as second-class consumers by offering them products in identical packaging, but of lower quality.

According to the report, EU member countries' consumer rights protection authorities will be given the right to impose fines on businesses that continue unfair commercial practices. For widespread infringements (those harming consumers in several EU countries), the available maximum fine in member states must amount to at least 4 percent of the trader's annual turnover in the previous financial year.

In Latvia, the Consumer Rights Protection Center will be entrusted with prevention of unfair commercial practices and reviewing complaints received from consumers.

According to the report, if certain conditions are met (for instance, marketing in different member states of products as being identical, significantly unjustified different composition or characteristics), the practice could be qualified as a misleading practice and prohibited.