Protection of consumers’ rights is important to all inhabitants, because everybody buys commodities and uses services. That is why it is essential to everyone that his or her rights are protected while making purchases – so that commodities one buys are safe and do not harm one’s health or danger one’s life, so that information given is complete and real, so that advertisements are not misleading, so that there are no unjust provisions of the contracts and so that consumers can exercise their rights.
Consumer Rights Protection Centre (CRPC) insures operation of Consumer Rights Protection Law, Advertising Law, Law on the Safety of Goods and Services, Law On Information Society Services, as well as other laws and many regulations of Cabinet of Ministers, that regulate consumer rights, in Latvia.
CRPC updates the public register for credit intermediaries related to the passport notification. The registration process implemented and supervised by CRPC complies with the Guidelines on passport notifications for credit intermediaries under the Mortgage credit directive (issued by European Banking Authority 19.10.2015.)
Notification forms could be found here
Credit intermediaries register
To insure implementation of functions entrusted to us, CRPC main tasks and directions of activity are as follows:
1) supervising and controlling of the market:
- Supervising commerce of non-food consumer goods (except medical commodities, medicaments, veterinary medicaments, cosmetics, veterinary-pharmaceutical products, animal care products, house-hold use chemical substances and chemical products)
- Supervising of information about commodities and services, as well as information given by manufacturers, vendors or providers of services, for it to be in compliance with laws and regulations.
- Supervising of correct determination of food and non-food consumer goods’ weight and size, correct calculation of commodity’s price, as well as supervising of prices’ indication procedure
- Supervising of services
- Supervising of e-commerce and e-business – providing of information, fulfillment of contract, etc.
- Organization and coordination of cooperation between supervision and control institutions involved in implementation of state policy about protection of consumer rights and nongovernmental organizations of consumer’s rights protection.
2) Reviewing of consumer complaints about violation of consumer rights, inter alia:
- Rendering of assistance to consumers in solving of conflicts with manufacturers, vendors and providers of services
- Requiring of fulfillment of lawful demands of consumers
- Controlling of procedure how consumer declares claim about commodity or service, which is improper to provision of the contract. Controlling of organization of commodity’s or service’s expertise. To make a decision about fulfillment of lawful demands of consumers.
- Accordingly to competence of CRPC, to create, to maintain and to update data base of expertise performers
- Providing legal aid to consumers regarding their rights
3) Protection of consumers’ economical interests – supervision of advertising and supervising of contracts’ projects and contracts which consumers conclude with manufacturers, vendors and providers of services to comply with consumers rights, inter alia:
- To perform actions planned in laws and regulations, so that manufacturer, vendor or provider of service changed project of the contract or terminated fulfillment of provisions of contract, when unjust or unclear provisions are found in project of the contract or in concluded contract
- To verify the consideration of procedure for undertaking, execution and implementation of warranty obligations
- To supervise being in compliance with laws and regulations of crediting contracts, distance contracts and other contracts
- To verify if contracts concluded by consumers include procedure given in laws and regulations for announcement and exploitation of refusal rights
- To evaluate compliance with laws and regulations of providing of complex tourism services
- Protection of consumers’ collective interests
- Protection of air passengers’ rights
- Supervising of e-commerce and e-business – providing of information, fulfillment of contract, etc.
- To evaluate compliance with laws and regulations of advertising and to make according decisions