The protection of consumer‘s right to information in lithuania

The concept of the right to information is wide-ranging, closely linked with various human rights, associated with many spheres of living. The basic notion of human informational rights is the rights to know about activities of the government. However, the content of the right to information is fast changing, affected by the vicissitude of its environment. Thus it means that the right to information had to find its place in the legal basis as well and was determined by the natural need for relationship regulations. In other words, the development of consumers’ rights was evolution and adaptation to the fast changing environment, consumerism movements, development of information society, technological progress. Even from the times of the French Revolution, the most important aspect of informational rights was knowing, what was being done, and how it was being done by the elected society members – the right to the information about activities of the government (as well as the right to participate in the ruling of the country). It was one of the fundamental bearers of democracy. Time went by and the notion of the bigger picture began to appear – it was understood that the citizen had more informational rights ant the content of his rights was expanding. The right to obtain information about oneself, collected by the institutions of the government, emerged. It is hard to say, whether the movements of the consumerism were the main influences, that stimulated the appearance of consumers’ right to information as the consumers’ right to information was more of an evolution, rather than revolution, influenced by the step-by-step and natural development of market relationships and elements of democracy. In the first part of the thesis the context, change, development and adaptation of the right to information is analyzed from the historical standpoint. This part of the thesis displays the concept of the right to information. In the second part of the thesis, the content of informational rights of the consumer is analyzed – what kind of informational rights does the consumer have and to what kind of information, the rising issues and ethical problems are discussed. In the third part of the thesis, the research is conducted to analyze the present legislative system, regulating consumers’ right to information. In the fourth part of the thesis, another research on the provision of information on the packaging of the chosen line of products is displayed – the process of the research is presented and the results are analyzed. Citizens by receiving the information they need are able form a clear view on the activities of the government, decide whether their personal opinion is similar with the one of their elected trustees, and participate in the process of decisions. This kind of filling of information gaps encourages the trust of society in the members of government. The same is with the crucial and relevant information to consumers. The education of consumers, provision of needed information and transparent behaviour not only encourages the trust of consumers in the subjects of commercial agents, but also creates the image of socially responsible organisation in the society