Title: CONSUMER RIGHTS – SPECIALIZED AND AUTHORIZED SERVICE AND REPAIRResponsibility without Control - OF PRODUCTS Product Repairs in the Law and in Practice Author: Katerina Popovska, Head of Legal Department, Neptun MacedoniaFor a better understanding we will dive in a more detailed explanation of the positive regulations applicable in the territory of Macedonia, and then how this regulations are practiced and applied in everyday use. Namely, which are this Consumers positive regulations and how are related to service and repair of products, and how dose legislative regulations are applied in practice.
The current legal frameworkPOSITIVE REGULATIONS
Consumers Any consumer has a positive legal rights. This legalhave rights that are are arising from tThe national legislation called Consumer protection Protection lawLaw, in which is governing the sale of products. In this Law, the Legislator has granted gives consumers the rights for consumers to obtain a specialized and authorized service of the products they buy whether or not they are under warranty., which can apply on products in and out of warranty period. The Legislator obligates the The same law requires m manufacturers (if they are legally established in the country) or importers of these products, or in a case of import the trader, of products to be responsible forto the service and repair of thee products they sell on the territory of Macedonia. This means that importers are often legally required to provide Positive legislation in Macedonia evens manufacturer and importer, and both of them have obligations to provide service of products. The Iimporter is obligated to provide service of products in a case where the manufacturer of this products doesn’t have a branch office sub diary in Macedonia, and is directly importing products for sale to end consumers. This means that companies which import this kind of products are evens to the manufacturer of those products, and they are legally responsible in front of the end consumers to provide maintenance, service and repair , and also have to be able to supply individual spare parts for dose products especially during the warranty period..for products. Also bBy LawLaw, the retailers (note: who are usually not the importer) Trader, which usually it’s not the importer, must transfer are required to provide all required documentation all the needed documents and hints related to dose documents to the end consumer, including a free-of-charge , also he must grant an offer to repair for a free removal of defects the product while it is underduring the warranty period. This means retailers have an overlapping obligation with importers/manufacturersThe authorized service of products, as stated before, is in the hands of the importer (manufacturer), but by Law the Trader is the one equally responsible for the service and repair as the Importer, and at their its own expense are is obligated to provide service of products, and they must guarantee the way of servicing e.g. replacement of spare parts for this products. Entirely missing from this problematic arrangement are the authorized service providers (ASPs) who are actually, in practice, National legislation doesn’t recognize and doesn’t regulate a category of legal entities that should be responsible in front of the consumers for authorized for servicinge and repairing of products for consumers. ASPs don’t appear in the As stated before, both trader and importer must provide maintenance service and repair to the end customer. Authorized services are not mentioned in the Consumer protection Protection Law, thus and consumers cannot expect anyhave no legal responsibility vis-à-vis consumersrights or legal remedy in front of this legal entities..
PRACTICE AND APPLICATIONIn practice The practice product shows that in the largest percentage of cases, the Importer is not the same company that is authorized to provide service of this these products. Specifically, the company who imports and sells a specific some brand of products, in most cases doesn’t have authorization by the manufacturer for servicing the same brand of products. The Mmanufacturers Company which produced this these products gives one authorize one ation to company for to import their goods and another to , and other authorization to different company to handle service and repair of this the same productsthem. This means manufacturers require retailers to delegate the service and repair of their products to an ASP. This is done via inter-company contracts, which are totally unregulated by Macedonian law. For example, electrical products (washing machines, refrigerators, stoves, etc.), almost in all cases, are produced in foreign country by companies which don’t have sub diaries e.g. registered offices in Macedonia. This products are then imported by domestic entity which is authorized by the Manufacturer, but in many cases this Importing entity in the same time is not authorized, don’t have the approval from the manufacturer, to provide service and repair of products, although by Macedonian Law and legislation it is obligated to do so. In practice, other entities are authorized by the manufacturer to provide service and repair of products, and this these other entities are recognized as a special category in practice, called Authorized services (AS)).This Authorized serviceAS performs service and repair of products, but because they don’t exist in the Consumer protection Law are not held responsible, and it’s like they don’t exist at all in front of the end consumers. The trader (and sometimes the importer) isFfully responsible for servicing and warranty in front of the Consumers, are the Trader or sometimes the Importer, or the Trader throw out the Importer, but Both both must handle “forward” the process of service and repair to aat the third party, theAuthorized serviceAS. Because no legal rights exists for this process, the relation is handled withboth try to take care with a special bilateral agreements, which are very hard to maintain, because there is no direct Law protection behindoverlooking them. When a Consumer consumer buys some product in a retail shop, the Ttrader must give him all supporting documents, prepared which by the manufacturer (Importer) prepare for it. This The documents are related to forthe easier and safe use of the product (accompany accompanied by: declaration, warranty, technical instructions, instructions for assembly, instructions for use, inventory of Authorized services, etc.). IfWhen consumers encounter a phave some problems with a product they buy, or the product doesn’t work as expected, then they usually complain go back to the Trader from retailer that sold it to them. However, the retailer is rarely authorized by the manufacturer to whom they seek a solution. The Trader is not diagnose or fix qualified to check the problem, duct by any means, so s/he instead is obligated to take overtransfers the product fromby the consumer, and has to send it to an Authorized service for checking and testingto the ASP. After this these checks are performed, tThe retailer then is responsible for communicating the ASPs findings to the customer. Trader receives back informations for the state status of the product that the consumer had a problem with. Alternatively, when customers take defective products directly to ASPs, the retailer that actually sold the product to them is left totally out of the process. Unfortunately, There can be one other scenario, where the consumer takes the product for servicing and goes directly to an Authorized service, so the Trader is not at all involved in the service process, and has zero information about it. But at the end can happen that if customers are unsatisfied with the ASPs’ work, they again return to the retailer to seek a solutionthe Consumer is dissatisfied unsatisfied with how the service was performed, and because he cannot complain or try to claim any of his rights in front of the Authorized service, he goes back to the Trader and claims his legal rights in front of him. The mMost common problems occur in this second scenario, since retailers when the Trader is not informed and he cannot do anything until the customer has already been disappointed by the product and the ASP.take any actions until the moment when the Consumer fully dissatisfied comes back to him fully unsatisfied. In short, ASPs have guaranteed customers but are not ultimately held responsible for their work in Macedonia. This situation may actually incentivize them to deny more claims for warranty coverage. After diagnostics of the product, in each of the two scenarios, possibility exists that the consumers will complain to the way the product was serviced from the Authorized service, or complain on the opinion of the product status e.g. was or wasit not manually broken by the end Consumer, and the warranty is not valid. Every consumer (diun) satisfaction which is related to the service and repair of products are expressed directly to Traders or Importers, because by law the Authorized service is not held responsible for any of this. Basically In practice, the Trader (Importer) has no power over the Authorized service, because they are two separate entities, and the second one holds special authorizations from manufacturer for performing service and repair. This These two companies try to make some bilateral agreements based on good relations, but in many cases in practice they don’t have any bilateral agreements and clear lines of rights and obligations. The situation becomes even more is further complicated by the fact that if one takes into account the fact that some certain brands of products have just only one ASPAuthorized service in Macedonia. So theThe Trader is in a situation that heThus, retailers who sell that brand must have no control over the cooperate with the assigned this one and only one AAuthorized service, and there is no mechanism how to manage for quality service of products in front of the end Consumers, because is nothe’s not able to control the way quality of servicing of the productsquality of service that is ultimately provided to their customers., and has no legal rights which can put him in a safer position. As stated couple of times before, by Law, the Trader is the one held responsible in front of the consumers, which means that he always must give a prompt feedback for all complaints and resolve them. The following real-life case illustrates the problem: b EXAMPLES FROM EVERYDAY LIFE By Lawlaw, products must be serviced and returned within 30 days; . , iIif fthe product is held more than 30 days, the cConsumers can demand a remedy from the retailer prescribed by law. seek by the Trader one of the options prescribed by Law options.. In one case, a real case scenario, product was serviced by the ASP returned a product after 31 daysAuthorized service within 31 days, and the customer demanded that the retailer furnish them with a new product rather than accept the one they had submitted for service Consumer noticed this and asked from the Trader this product to be replaced with a new one. This longer duration of service is due to the way how service is handling at the Authorized service. In this case, and many other like this one, the Trader has no effects influence over the process of service., and cannot give any feedback on how the process can be done better and faster.. The AS is Ffully responsible is the Authorized service whichand handles the serviceservicing of the product, but it is not recognized in the this entity in the Consumer ProtectionCustomer protection LLaw doesn’t exist.. Current penalties for retailers’ failure to comply with warranty obligations also deserve mention. Namely, The Consumer submits all complaints against the Trader and the government authorized inspection authority has the full right,s by Law, to issue a significant fint topenalize the trader., and this penalties cannot be understatement by any means. Namely, if the Trader acts contrary to Article 48 of the Consumer Protection Law, which saysstates: that retailers that fail to comply with the 30 day maximum can be fined 4.000 EUR and even be shut down for a certain period of time. Thus, under the current framework, the failure of an ASP to keep a deadline in a single case could do irreparable damage to an entire retail operation. The Solution"Trader must remove all the problems within maximum of 30 days from the submission of the request by of the consumer, upon this time and on a decision of the government authorized inspection authority, which the Consumer can ask for, the Trader can be fined in amount of 4,000 euros, and also can be made a decision on banning the Trader from any activities for a predefined period of time”. In this way, by Law, the Trader is held fully responsible for something that he has nothing do with, but can get negative consequences like fines and damaged reputation in front of the consumers and the government institutions. The highest penalty e.g. “Decision for banning on performing activities in a predefined time period” is irreparable damage which can be done to the Trader as a direct consequence of a activities operations done by third party, e.g. Authorized service.
CONCLUSION As we can see from all that was referred above, Consumer Rights in Macedonia, especially in service and repair, differ a lot in the way they are applied in real life compared to what the is prescribed in Lawpositive regulations are. In the related Law there are not enough regulations handling the interconnections between a Trader and an Importer, in the case when the Importer is the same entity authorized by the Manufacturer for service and repair. This case is a vastly covered, and there are few regulations on how service needs to be handled. But in practice usually the Authorized service is not the same entity as the Importer, it’s a third party, and the Importer has nothing to do with the service and repair. With this phantom entity which doesn’t exists in the Consumer Protection Law, handling service and repair of products becomes way more complicated for the Trader, and is loosely based on bilateral agreements(if any) between the Trader and Authorized service with respect for each other based on a previous collaborations.
Given the limited number of manufacturers that are present in Macedonia and the fact that the country is open to international trade, it is critical that the Law on Consumer Protection and Law on Obligations are brought into line with global practices. This means recognizing and regulating the role of ASPs, which is so critical in many retail segments. After all, the responsibility to protect consumers from defective products must be demanded from those that have control.