The Consumer Protection Act[1] (the “CPA” or the “Act”) was substantially amended last year (see our article here). As part of the amendment, the supervision of consumer protection has also been significantly modified, both in terms of subject matter and by introducing a change in the systematics in the regulation of supervisory authorities and their competences. However, during the comprehensive revision of the aforementioned legislation, legislators neglected to incorporate the regulation of supervision into the common provisions on offences. This has created a situation where, on the one hand, the Act entrusts the hearing of offences to the Czech Trade Inspection Authority, only to delegate this competence to all administrative authorities that exercise supervision in a particular case several paragraphs later[2]. The reader is thus exposed to two contradictory provisions governing the same issue.

In the event of a legal inconsistency, it makes sense to look at the practice – it would be administrative nonsense for all consumer protection offences to be dealt with exclusively by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority. The latter would not have the chance to deal with all the complaints and it would effectively paralyse the expected effects of supervision. At the same time, such an approach would completely contradict the legislator’s intention, which in the context of imposing sanctions on offences in the field of consumer protection seeks the highest possible efficiency, not the concentration of the entire agenda in the hands of one authority.

In reality, it is the administrative authorities responsible for supervision that review offences, which in principle illustrates that practice has managed to cope despite the legislators. In principle, the purpose of the Act was fulfilled, although it could easily be circumvented. The resulting legal loophole can thus probably be filled by interpretation in the light of the actual situation. A more certain option, however, is undoubtedly to align the text of the law with reality. Thus, in order to preserve legal certainty, the legislators will make minor amendments and modifications to the relevant sections of the CPA.

The law will be debated at the end of May and can be expected to pass smoothly at all levels of the legislative process. It shall enter into force on the day following the date of its promulgation.

[1] Act No. 634/1992 Coll., on Consumer Protection

[2] Cf. article 23 and 24b of Act No. 634/1992 Coll., on Consumer Protection

Author: Veronika Odrobinová, Adam Simota