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Taking Collective Interest of Consumers Seriously: A View from Poland
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1725-6739
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EUI LAW; 2008/26
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SAFJAN, Marek, GORYWODA, Lukasz, JANCZUK-GORYWODA, Agnieszka, Taking Collective Interest of Consumers Seriously: A View from Poland, EUI LAW, 2008/26 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/9567
Abstract
An increased focus on consumer collective redress marks the shift from substance- to
enforcement-oriented perspective in the EU consumer policy. The EU action in this
regard is currently at the stage of feasibility study but it seems to be moving towards a
mechanism protecting collective rather than individual interests of consumers. In spite
of these developments, a comprehensive strategy towards the concept of collective
interest of consumers is missing at the EU level. We argue that a relative disregard of
the procedural functions which the concept performs, as exemplified also by the already
existing EU instruments for consumer redress, may lead to under-enforcement of
consumer rights. As a possible remedy we put forward a proposal how to make the
concept of consumer collective interest a workable tool. From an evolutionary
perspective, we also examine how the concept of public interest was construed by the
Polish judiciary during the socialist regime to prove that the way the public interest was
conceptualised in the past affects the present understanding of the consumers’ collective
interest. As Poland represents a New Member State and has experienced economic and
political transformation, our case study demonstrates how political and economic
conditions shape the concept of collective interest. The overall goal of the paper is to
show that clear understanding of the idea of collective interest of consumers, which
currently varies from one MS to another, is essential for the creation of the internal
market in collective redress