Ukraine was one of the first countries in the post-Soviet space to enshrine consumer rights at the legislative level by adopting a relevant law. However, despite the legislative prerequisites, the practical realization of Ukrainian consumers’ rights has long remained unsatisfactory. Numerous reforms of executive authorities have resulted in the lack of real control and supervision over consumer rights by the state and, as a result, in arbitrariness of producers and sellers of goods and products.
Currently, the main specialized body in the field of consumer protection in Ukraine is the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSFSCP). This central executive body has concentrated the powers of the previously existing bodies with diametrically opposite vectors of activity: The State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine, the State Inspectorate for Consumer Protection, and the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Ukraine. As a result of the concentration of such a large number of completely different powers, the rights of ordinary consumers remain largely unprotected.
The introduction of a general moratorium on business inspections, including consumer protection inspections, in 2016-2018 was ambiguous, leaving ordinary citizens to deal with manufacturers and sellers of goods and products on their own.
Like any public authority, the SSFSCP is limited in its ability to carry out its control and supervisory and human rights functions by the need to follow clear procedures during inspections, limited by the tools provided by law and sometimes by the lack of specialists with the appropriate competence. And most importantly, the SSFSCP can record existing violations and take measures to stop them, but it cannot protect and restore consumer rights!
Both Ukrainian and European Union legislation provide for a leading role in the protection and restoration of consumer rights to public consumer associations that have a special legal status and powers in the relevant area. Such public organisations can independently, on a voluntary basis, conduct actual inspections of product quality and characteristics, participate in inspections of government agencies, defend consumer rights in courts and other bodies, initiate class actions, etc.
During 2015-2016, the founder and current chairman of the NGO “Ukrconsumerprotection” (UCP), Maksym Gonchar, began to carry out his consumer protection activities in close cooperation with the NGO “Consumer Trust”, which since 2012 has taken an active human rights position in relation to Ukrainian consumers, conducted educational activities to raise awareness of consumers about their rights and ways to exercise them, and published the magazine “Consumer Trust”.
Maksym Gonchar established an effective mechanism of interaction between civil society and the competent authorities – the SSFSCP and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU). Representatives of the public carried out sampling and laboratory tests on their own, and the results were provided to the SSFSCP, which, in addition to bringing violators to justice, passed the collected materials to the AMCU, whose powers are much broader and fines are much more significant. For example, the largest fine for one of Ukraine’s milk processing plants was UAH 68 million based on our test results and proof of product falsification.
To strengthen the role of the public, Maxim Gonchar established the non-governmental organisation Ukrconsumerprotection (UCP) in 2018. The main goal of the organisation is to actually protect and restore the violated rights of Ukrainian consumers using all the remedies provided for by national and supranational legislation. In other words, UCP operates in the area where Ukrainian consumers are still left to fend for themselves, as no competent authority protects the rights of the average consumer. The main motto of the UCP is that if the state does not protect citizens-consumers, then civil society protects itself.
The UCP has 14 branches in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, Dnipro, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk regions, which work daily to protect violated consumer rights.
The governing bodies included prominent Ukrainian figures, including:
Sergiy “Boatswain” Korotkikh, a well-known public activist, former commander of the Azov Regiment’s intelligence unit, who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the first days of the Russian invasion and defended Ukraine and its population from the Russian invaders without wasting a minute
Stanislav Predko, a well-known athlete, winner of the World, European and Ukrainian scuba diving championships.
