KOLEKTIVNA ZAŠTITA POTROŠAČA U SRPSKOM PRAVU
CONSUMER COLLECTIVE REDRESS IN SERBIAN LAW

Summary/Abstract: This article follows the hesitant development of collective redress mechanisms in the sphere of consumer protection in Serbia. The National Assembly made the first attempt to regulate horizontal judicial collective redress in 2011, but the Constitutional Court ruled the relevant provisions of the Civil Procedure Act to be unconstitutional due to lack of clarity, soundness and coherence. The first sectoral collective redress mechanism was introduced in 2010. It was related specifically to the collective interests of the consumers: The Consumer Protection Act of 2010 contained some limited and insufficient provisions on judicial injunction procedure against unfair terms and unfair commercial practices, as well as an underdeveloped rule on skimmingoff procedure in relation to the illgotten gains. These statutory provisions were abrogated in July 2014, when the National Assembly passed the new Consumer Protection Act. The legislator exempted sectoral collective redress from the jurisdiction of the courts, and placed injunctive collective redress under the jurisdiction of the Ministry in charge of consumer protection. There are no rules on consumer compensatory collective redress in Serbia at this moment. The author examines the most recent legislative change, the reasons for and the consequences of this alteration, and the compliance of the new statutory rules with the Commission Recommendation on common principles for injunctive and compensatory collective redress mechanisms (2013/396/EU).

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