ПРАВНИ ПОЛОЖАЈ ПОТРОШАЧА У УСЛОВИМА ЕЛЕКТРОНСКЕ ТРГОВИНЕ
LEGAL POSITION OF CONSUMERS IN E-COMMERCE

Summary/Abstract: A consumer, in the widest sense of the word, is a person sui generis who satisfies one's own needs and exercises one's rights in compliance with its specific characteristics and within the framework of the given socio-economic system. Under the European Charter on Consumer Protection, the concept of a consumer entails any natural person who appears on the market outside the framework of one's professional of business activity, purchasing goods and service for one's own needs. Pursuant to the opinions of the European Court of Justice a consumer is a natural person or an association of natural; persons acting through their business or professional activities. In the Consumer Protection Act of the Republic of Serbia, a consumer is defined as any natural person who purchases products or uses services for personal or the household needs. A consumer is also an economic entity, enterprise or other legal person and entrepreneur that buys products or uses services for its own needs. A consumer is concurrently a buyer, but each .buyer does not necessarily have to be a consumer. In the long and difficult history of consumers' struggle to exercise and protect their rights, consumers have gone a long way starting from the Roman principle "Let the consumer be protected" to the present-day proverbial saying "The consumer is always right", which should certainly be observed by every respectable and responsible merchant. Today, consumers have a number of respectable mechanisms for legal protection of their economic, social, health; and other, interests. These mechanisms are laid down both in the national legislation and in the international legal provisions. In the digital world and in the global circumstances of expanding e- commerce, the legal position of consumers has become ever so complex and considerably more vulnerable. On-line purchasing, electronic payment and other available forms of e-commerce generate new challenges and temptations for the consumer, who is already in an inferior position as compared to the seller. In addition to the traditional risks and dangers present in the analogue environment, there are additional risks and dangers lurking in the digital world, primarily pertaining to the endangered consumer's privacy and the increased risk of fraud and harm to the consumer, etc. Accordingly, the question of the position and the role of consumers is highly relevant in the new circumstances of global commercialization and the fact that the world we live in has been progressively turning into the global consumer society. Thus, the postulation that "the consumer is always right" is hardly ever questioned nowadays; instead, the new circumstances have given rise to another question: what will eventually happen to the consumer - will the consumer survive or be "consumed" by the currents of the consumer society.

• Details
• Contents