A staff member of the Ombudsman Office took part in the event dedicated to the World Consumer Rights Day

On March 15, the World Consumer Rights Day, the State Service for Antimonopoly Policy and Consumer Market Control under the Ministry of Economy organized a video conference entitled "Mutual trust in consumer and entrepreneurial relations" jointly with the relevant government agencies, NGOs, and business entities.  

The Deputy Chief of the Service, Acting Chief Sahib Mammadov stressed the protection of consumer rights as one of the priorities of socio-economic policy and the monitoring of the consumer market conducted on a regular basis, as well as joint work, carried out with public organizations, for the purpose of reliable provision of these rights and the implementation of obligations arising from the legislation. He also noted the importance of measures taken to educate consumers.

During his speech, the Ombudsman’s representative Rashad Novruzov, Head of the Unit at the Ombudsman Office also reminded that the relevant state programs consider strengthening the protection of the consumers’ rights, creating effective control mechanisms over the quality of the products, improving the accessibility of the consumers, developing   Internet portal with information about goods and manufacturers and others, and that the necessary measures have been taken in this direction.

He also spoke about the competencies of the Ombudsman to monitor the implementation of the Law on Access to Information by state, local self-government bodies, and officials. He reminded that the Ombudsman carries out its activities in the field of consumer protection through the investigation of complaints, the organization of scientific-analytical and educational work. It was noted that special attention is paid to cooperation with the State Service for Antimonopoly and Consumer Market Control, the Food Safety Agency, and other relevant government agencies and CSOs.

In addition to the above, he stressed the importance of the activity of the Working Group (WG) on Business and Human Rights, initiated and created under the Ombudsman, which is dealing also with the protection of the consumers’ rights.  

The Head of the Unit also said that the WG submitted its recommendations about the amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Consumers to the relevant Committee in the Parliament. It was underlined that it is necessary to protect the rights of consumers during COVID-19 quarantine as the rate of online shopping has increased.