THE ROMANIAN CONSUMER AND HIS/HER RIGHTS: OPINIONS AND ATTITUDES

An important component of the quality of life, the consumers ’ rights and interests protection has become a priority of the European Union policy, a type of policy based among others on the results of the Eurobarometer type studies. Our study is a secondary analysis of the data provided by the special EB 69.1 Eurobarometer on the topic of „Consumer Protection on the Domestic Market ” (Euopean Commission, 2008). We focused on aspects connected to the Romanian consumer: the ascribed factors which influence the purchasing decision related to gender, age, level of education, residence, the level of protection felt by the consumer, ways of consumers ’ protection as they are seen by the consumers themselves, the mechanism of safety product assessment done by the consumers. From the data analysis in the present study we concluded that numerous Romanian consumers do not know the laws and the institutions entitled to protect their rights, but are discontent regarding the manner their rights are observed; they have as a main purchasing criterion the price; the producers take advantage of the lack of information and attitude of the consumers regarding their rights; and the consumers, lacking a suitable education, remain only at the level of discontent, of not trusting the possibility of their rights being respected, which in its turn causes a low level of self-protection. In these conditions we consider necessary the systematic education of the consumers as well as producers regarding the quality, the safety of the marketed products, of the attitude regarding the disobedience of the producers/suppliers for the regulations in this area, doubled by an increased interest from the authorities for consumer protection and a manifestation of individual or associative civic sense