The Consumer's Judicial Protection Regarding Commercial Companies

Abstract

The law in matters of consumer protection was born in the 18th century, and started to develop in the second half of the 20th century. In the period 1960 – 1970 European states like Sweden, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, France adopted laws regarding the protection of consumer's rights. In Romania, such laws protecting the rights of consumers were adopted after th e Revolution in December 1989. Thus, the first laws on the matter were the Government Ordinance no. 21/1992 - which is presently applicable and Law no. 193/2000 also currently applicable although it was republished and modified. The specificity of the legislation in Romania is represented by the fact that the notion of “consumer” represents only the privat e person, the individual. The companies are assimilated to the professionals and are not protected against abusive contractual terms and clauses. Although the same private service can be granted and offered by the same company, the contract and its clauses will vary due to the quality of the contractor. If the contractor is a private person, a particular, he will be protected by law against abusive contractual clauses, while the contractor, which is a company will not be protected against the same contractual clauses. Thus, one and the same contractual clause cannot be abusive to the particular and legal to a company which is assimilated by the legislator to the professionals. In our opinion, this lack of protection regarding the professionals, the companies, not only represents a breech of the Romania's Constitution where in article 16, the fundamental right regarding the equality of all ci tizens in front of the law is being guaranteed, but it also represents a discrimination of the professionals.