Chaired by National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, the National Assembly continued its fifth working day of the fifth session at the National Assembly House. Delegates had a heated discussion on the Draft Law on Consumer Rights Protection.
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The National Assembly continued the 5th working day of the 5th Session at the National Assembly House under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue. |
At the discussion session on some contents with different opinions of the draft Law on Consumer Rights Protection (LBVQLNTD), 22 delegates spoke, in which the delegates' opinions basically agreed with many contents in the Report on explanation and acceptance and revision of the National Assembly Standing Committee.
Determine the responsibilities of organizations and individuals doing business and providing services and goods.
Participating in the discussion session on the LBVQLNTD Project, delegate Tran Thi Thu Phuoc (National Assembly Delegation of Kon Tum province) said that in order to protect consumers from fraudulent acts, the draft law clearly stipulates the responsibilities of organizations and individuals trading in goods and services to provide transparent, accurate and complete information about goods and services to consumers, and compensation and handling measures for consumers when there are incidents or defective products and goods.
However, in reality, the implementation of handling consumer deception is still inadequate. Delegates said that the draft law needs to specify criteria for assessing whether the behavior of business organizations and individuals deceives consumers or not, based on the perception and identification abilities of ordinary consumers.
Specifically, it is necessary to clearly define the method of determination based on the time and method of providing information to consumers, the level of deviation or omission of information compared to reality, and the level of influence of incorrect or incomplete information leading to consumer decisions.
Regarding the settlement of civil cases on consumer rights, delegate Nguyen Minh Son (National Assembly delegate of Tien Giang province) said that the draft Law distinguishes two applicable cases, which is understood as for transactions with a value of over 100 million VND, the Civil Procedure Code applies, and for transactions with a value of less than 100 million VND, the Consumer Rights Law applies.
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| Delegate Tran Thi Thu Phuoc speaks at the Hall. (Source: quochoi.vn) |
Consumer obligations
Commenting on the obligations of consumers, delegate Cam Thi Man (National Assembly delegate of Thanh Hoa province) said that for goods and products, it is possible to check, but for services, the quality can only be known when used, so it is impossible to stipulate that services in general must be checked before receiving. For goods and products, the origin can be selected based on the label and certificate, but for services, it is impossible not to determine according to the criteria of origin.
In fact, consumers always naturally check, choose and decide to buy products, goods and decide to use services to meet their needs and desires. Meanwhile, we all know that the regulations built in this draft law are aimed at protecting the rights of consumers against defective products, goods and services that do not ensure quality. Therefore, the first responsibility belongs to business organizations and individuals when providing products, goods and services to society to ensure quality according to certain standards, criteria and conditions.
The regulation of consumer obligations in this case is no different from pushing the responsibility to the consumers themselves in protecting their rights, therefore, delegate Man proposed to remove this regulation in the Draft Law on Consumer Rights.
Regarding compensation for damage caused by defective products and goods as stipulated in Article 34, delegate Nguyen Huu Thong said that in recent times, this provision has created favorable conditions for consumers to use increasingly high-quality products. However, in many cases, products do not meet the prescribed quality, and the remedial measures taken by businesses are not guaranteed in accordance with the law, etc. Therefore, the delegate proposed that the draft Law supplement the provision requiring organizations and individuals trading in defective goods and defective products to compensate consumers within a certain period of time.
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| Delegate Tran Van Tuan - National Assembly Delegation of Bac Giang province (Source: quochoi.vn) |
Ensure full information for consumers
Discussing at the meeting, delegate To Van Tam (National Assembly delegate of Kon Tum province) stated that one of the important issues in protecting consumer rights is that consumers have full and accurate information about the quality of products, services and goods. In the current conditions, social media plays a huge and important role in promoting product information to consumers.
However, there are some who have been using this medium to promote incorrectly, incompletely or misleadingly, spreading fake news about the quality of products, goods and services. They even set up fake websites to impersonate product brands, deceiving consumers to consume goods and services...
According to the delegate, amidst the siege of fake information, consumers find it difficult to distinguish, many people "lose money and suffer" because of false information.
Therefore, delegate To Van Tam proposed to supplement the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and related ministries and branches, especially the Ministry of Information and Communications, on the responsibility to prevent and eliminate false information on social media using professional technical measures.
Proposal to remove transaction value regulations
Speaking at the discussion in the Hall, many National Assembly deputies proposed removing the regulation on transaction value in order to apply simplified procedures to resolve cases to protect consumer rights.
Many delegates said that current practice shows that transactions for buying and selling ordinary consumer goods with a value greater than 100 million VND are very common, and regulations such as the Draft will prevent transactions over 100 million VND from being subject to the simplified procedure when resolving disputes.
According to National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy - National Assembly Delegation of Bac Kan province, since 2015, when drafting the Civil Procedure Code, there has been a lot of confusion about the transaction value to apply the simplified procedure. Because in the judicial field, the complexity of a case does not depend on whether the value of the dispute is large or small, 100 million, 1 billion or 10 billion, but depends on whether the evidence of the case is clear and complete or not.
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| National Assembly Delegate of Tien Giang province Nguyen Thanh Cam speaks at the Hall (Source: quochoi.vn) |
Identify vulnerable consumer groups
Regarding the protection of vulnerable consumer rights, delegate Nguyen Thanh Cam (National Assembly delegate of Tien Giang province) said that although the current regulations on 7 vulnerable groups are often just a list, which may not be comprehensive, delegate Nguyen Thanh Cam still agrees with the plan to specifically state these 7 groups, because it can be said that these are also the most vulnerable groups.
Meanwhile, Delegate Tran Van Tuan (National Assembly Delegation of Bac Giang Province) said that the identification of 7 vulnerable consumer groups as in the draft Law is a list, some specific subjects may not be complete, not all-encompassing, and the more listed, the more likely it is that there will be omissions, which can easily lead to missing subjects, and there will be no appropriate policies and measures for these subjects.
Therefore, delegate Tran Van Tuan proposed to amend and re-edit Clause 1, Article 8 of the draft law in the direction of identifying a number of vulnerable consumer groups comprehensively and proposed 4 groups. On that basis, the Government will continue to specify vulnerable consumer groups with appropriate policies.
Specifically, Mr. Tuan suggested that “Vulnerable consumers are consumers who, at the time of purchasing or using products, goods, and services, are likely to suffer many adverse impacts on access to information, health, property, and dispute resolution, including: i) People with limited awareness and understanding; ii) People with illnesses and disabilities; iii) Poor people and low-income people; iv) People living in places with many socio-economic difficulties.
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