Consumer Protection (Institutional Approach)

The objective of the work is to evaluate the achieved level of development of consumer protection, in particular in the European and Czech context, as well as to analyse the current state of consumer protection in the Czech Republic, with a special emphasis on the analysis of the actual protection and enforcement of consumers' rights in the Czech Republic. The following three working hypotheses are set out in the work: Hypothesis No. 1: The pre-condition for enforcing consumer protection is improving on a world wide scale. Hypothesis No. 2: The consumer policies of the Czech Republic respect the European principles of consumer protection, and form the framework for the effective enforcement of consumers' rights. Hypothesis No. 3: The actual enforcement of consumers' rights depends not only on the working of the relevant state authorities, but also on the level of knowledge among the consumers, and their willingness and ability to enforce their rights. The work is divided into four basic parts. The first part is devoted to the theoretical solutions, and the economic context of consumer protection. It attempts to answer the question of whether consumer protection has some theoretical justification. The text shows that the substantiation of consumer protection consists, in particular, in the levelling of informational asymmetry, which is one of the most frequent causes of market failure. Therefore, it is consumer protection in the form of state intervention in the economy which reduces dis-equilibrium on the market. The second part analyses the development of consumer protection, and evaluates the state of consumer protection in the world and European context. The world context is understood in the global scale, and its analysis should confirm, or overturn, the first working hypothesis. Upon analysis of the relevant data it may be stated that the findings of this part of the work confirm the first hypothesis. Ever more countries belong to that group of countries which can provide their citizens with a high standard of consumer protection, such as that normally envisioned in U.N. policy. The European context is viewed through the prism of our membership in the EU, and its analysis is vital to understanding the state of consumer protection in the Czech Republic. The third part of the work is devoted to the analysis of the development and evaluation of consumer protection in the Czech Republic; together with the previous part, this part provides sufficient basis for the evaluation of the second hypothesis. It must be said that, with a few small exceptions, the legislative provisions for the protection of consumers in the Czech Republic are completely harmonised with consumer protection legislation in the whole EU, in other words, the European framework of consumer protection is completely respected. On the other hand, more detailed analyses of the development of consumer protection in the CR, and analysis of government consumer policy, has revealed certain reservations in this area. The second hypothesis, then, could be confirmed; nonetheless, in the creation of an effective framework for the enforcement of consumers' rights, there is still some room for improvement. The fourth part concentrates mainly on the evaluation of research among consumers, which should confirm, or overturn, the third hypothesis. The research was questionnaire based, and, subsequently, there were processed questionnaires from 313 respondents. The results were interpreted in connection with demographic factors, such as: age, education, sex and profession. Analysis of these results confirms the third hypothesis. That concerns, mainly, the willingness, knowledge and ability of the consumers, which have significant influence on the actual enforcement of their consumer rights. These attributes are individual qualities, which do not play any significant role in following demographic characteristics