CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Haile, Andnet Shimelis |
|---|---|
| Title | Enforcement of Consumer Protection under the new legal regime of Ethiopia in the light of the EU and US laws and practices: A comparative analysis |
| Summary | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In Ethiopia, there has been no integrated and separate consumer protection law until the 16th of August 2010, except the repealed Trade Practices Proclamation N0 329/2003 which had a limited protection for consumers and the COMESA Treaty for Competition Regulation (ratified by Ethiopia in 2004 which has coverage for consumers’ protection in cross-border transactions and still is applicable). In August 16, 2010, the Federal parliament enacted Proclamation N0 685/2010 as a break through which wholly repealed the previous Proclamation N0 329/2003.The proclamation is a new development in granting consumers’ rights up to establishing an autonomous government agency (though accountable to the Ministry of Trade) named Trade Practices and Consumers’ Protection Authority having judicial functions in imposing administrative measures, civil sanctions and awarding compensations for consumers. According to the recent amendment Proclamation No 813/2014, the TPCPA currently renamed as TCCPA has gained added power of investigation, asking for reliefs (litigation) and prosecution in criminal matters. This purely depicts the public law nature of consumer law in Ethiopia. It’s further evidenced by the three fold aims of the new proclamation (Proclamation No813/2014) namely, in establishing a system that is conducive for the promotion of competitive market, for protecting the well being of consumers and in accelerating the economic development of the country. In the purview of consumer protection, the EU member states predominantly focused on the public enforcement strategy and in recent years they are also implementing the private enforcement mechanism particularly collective actions. This does not, however, mean that there is no mix of the public-private enforcement scheme in the EU member states Consequently, the landscape of consumer law enforcement may be put like this: public bodies involvement in the UK (OFT), Ireland (National Consumer Agency) and recently in the Netherlands ( Consumer Agency) together with self-regulatory agencies and consumer ombudsmen ; public involvement particularly administrative enforcement prevalent in Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Malta and Hungary; prevention through negotiation and recommendation practiced in Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen and enforcement by private business and consumer associations in Austria and Germany without however undermining the supervisory mandate of public authorities. In the US, though the conventional approach of enforcement is highly attached to the private attorney general model, due to the restructuring and strong power bestowal to the administrative agencies such as the FTC ,FDA, and CFPB makes public enforcement to gain momentum. Put otherwise, the named federal agencies and other state agencies are at the forefront in the realm of public enforcement of consumer laws particularly the FTC is empowered to conduct investigations, to lodge files in asking different reliefs in the administrative and civil courts and in limited situations in filing criminal charges before criminal courts and further issue hard laws that should be in congruence with the laws promulgated by the Congress. This thesis argues that public enforcement and private enforcement are not mutually exclusive options but reinforce each other. However, it has to be cognizant that both enforcement models have their own strengths and weaknesses. The very aim of the thesis goes on to vividly capture the public enforcement model of consumer protection in the Federal Government of Ethiopia that is spear headed by the TCCPA-Trade Competition and Consumers Protection Authority and further embrace a more viable and sustainable enforcement framework and mechanism in the country. In doing so, the prevailing laws and practices of the EU and the US do have important place both as a litmus test and as a guidelines to Ethiopia’s current enforcement scenario. |
| Supervisor | Sganga Caterina |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/haile_andnet.pdf |
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