Legal regulations of the consumer protection in Ukraine with regard to Ukraine’s obligation of adaptation to the EU legislation

Abstract

Since 2014 Ukraine has been implementing the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement in its domestic legal system and facing a lot of challenges introducing European rules and practices into the country’s daily life. The area of consumer protection is one of the most challenging fields due to the cross-cutting nature of consumer protection and its high relevance for all stakeholders: the state, businesses, and consumers. Reforming the Ukrainian consumer protection system and policy is one of the key tasks for the Government of Ukraine. These changes will affect almost the entire population of the country, but – as presented in this article analysis demonstrates – the progress in adjusting Ukrainian legislation in this field to the level needed to correspond to the European standards is moving rather slowly. The author concludes that a comprehensive and well-balanced consumer protection policy model instead of constant amendments to the consumer rights legislation needs to be developed in Ukraine with the proper consideration of the interests of businesses, the state and, first of all, the consumers. Amending the consumer rights legislation does not mean automatically the improvement of the consumer protection level in the country, especially in the situation, when the efficiency of the developed remedies and protection mechanisms depends on wider reforms in judiciary and executive branches in the state.