Consumer Protection in Croatia with a Special Emphasis on Distance and Off-Premises Contracts

Consumer Protection in Croatia with a Special Emphasis on Distance and Off-Premises Contracts

Petrašević, Tunjica
Poretti, Paula

The aim of this paper is to present consumer protection in Croatia with special emphasis on distance and off-premises contracts. The focus in this paper is on a rather narrow, but extremely important field of consumer protection. Namely, it depicts situations in which consumer is unprepared and unable to reconsider a purchase of a certain product or service. In the first part of the paper a brief overview of the development of consumer protection in Croatia is presented, from the Stabilization and Association Agreement in 2001 until the present. Then, in the second part of the paper novelties which were brought to the „new“ Consumer protection Act by the implementation of Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, in the manner that regulation of distance contracts are presented prior to the regulation of off-premises contracts. In the third part of the paper establishment of out-of-court resolution of consumer disputes according to Directive on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (Directive on consumer ADR) and Regulation on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes (Regulation on consumer ODR) are presented. Solutions which could enable simplified and efficient resolution of both national and cross-border disputes within a system of alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes originating from distance and off-premises contracts are analysed and a critical consideration of their implementation in Croatian consumer protection legislation is carried out.

Article
PeerReviewed

ISSN 2303-5706

International Burch University

2016-04-15

3287