REGULATORY CHOICES OF RUSSIAN AN D UKRAINIAN LEGISLATORS IN CONSUMER CREDITS: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Russia and Ukraine have recently adopted complex statutes on consumer credit. Ukraine, unlike Russia, declared the aim of the new act, inter alia, harmonization of the legislation with international and EU standards. Prior to enactment, both countries had a fragmentary regulation of few aspects of consumer credit in general consumer protection laws. I consider peculiarities of the elimination of the contract disproportion of debtor and creditor rights in contracts on consumer credit under new Russian and Ukrainian regulations from a comparative perspective. EU law does not regulate some important issues covered by Russian and Ukrainian legislations, e.g. priority of payments. On the contrary, some useful concepts, which are applicable to consumer loans under EU law, like “linked credits,” “open-end agreements” are absent in both Russian and Ukrainian laws. While comparing new Russian and Ukrainian consumer credit statutes, it is clear that in some aspects the Ukrainian one is pro-consumer, and in some other aspects the Russian one is more pro-consumer. Some provisions of both Russian and Ukrainian consumer credit statutes are very controversial and unclear; in some instances they could lead to debt slavery, so they must be corrected in the future.