Chương 2 Luật bảo vệ quyền lợi người tiêu dùng 2010: Trách nhiệm của tổ chức, cá nhân kinh doanh hàng hóa, dịch vụ đối với người tiêu dùng

Chapter 2.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF ORGANIZATIONS OR INDIVIDUALS TRADING GOODS AND/OR SERVICES TO CONSUMERS

Article 12. Responsibilities of organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services in providing information about goods and/or services to consumers

1. To label goods as prescribed by law.

2. To publicly post the prices of goods and/or services at places of business, service offices.

3. To show warning if goods and/or services may be harmful to health, life and property of consumers, and the preventive measures.

4. To provide information on the availability of components and spare parts of goods.

5. To provide manual or guidance; conditions, duration, location, warranty procedures in case of goods and/or services with warranty.

6. To inform accurately and fully to consumers of the form-based contracts, general conditions for transaction before the transaction.

Article 13. Liability for third parties in providing information about goods and/or services to consumers

1. Where organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services provide information to consumers through a third party, the third party shall:

a) Provide accurate and full information about the provided goods and/or services;

b) To request organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to provide evidence proving the accuracy and completeness of information on goods and services;

c) Take joint responsibility for providing incomplete or inaccurate information, unless already done to prove all the measures prescribed by law to check the accuracy and completeness of information about goods and services;

d) Comply with the provisions of laws on the press, laws on advertising.

2. Where organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services provide information to consumers through the media, the media owner or the media service provider shall:

a) Implement the regulations in Clause 1 of this article;

b) Establish, develop technical solutions to prevent means and services under their management that are used for purposes of harassing consumers;

c) Refuse to let organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services use means and services under their management, if such use is likely to result in harassment of consumers;

d) Cease the permission for Organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to use means and services under their management to perform acts of harassing the consumers at the request of consumers or competent State agencies.

Article 14. Contracts concluded with consumers

1. Form of contracts with consumers should comply with civil laws.

2. Where a contract is concluded with consumers in writing, the language of the contract must be clear, easily understood.

Language used in contracts with consumers is Vietnamese, unless the parties agree otherwise or otherwise provided by law.

3. Where the contract is concluded by electronic means, the organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services must let consumers check the entire contract before signing.

4. The Government shall detail the other forms of signing contracts with consumers.

Article 15. Explanation of contracts concluded with consumers

In case of different interpretation of the contract, the competent organizations or individuals shall resolve the dispute in consideration of consumers’ interests.

Article 16. Invalid terms of the contracts concluded with consumers and invalid general trading conditions

1. Terms of the contracts concluded with consumers and general trading conditions shall have no effect in the following cases:

a) Where they exclude liability of organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to consumers as prescribed by laws;

b) Where they restrict or exclude the right to complaint and take lawsuits by consumers;

c) Where they allow organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to unilaterally change the conditions of the contract agreed in advance with the consumer or the rules, regulations for good sales or service supply applies to consumers when buying and using goods and/or services do not specifically indicate in the contract;

d) Where they allow organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to unilaterally determine the consumer who fails to perform one or more obligations;

e) Where they allow organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to set forth or change the price at the time of delivery of goods or providing of services;

f) Where they allow organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to explain the contract in case of different interpretation of the terms;

g) Where they exclude liability of organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services in cases where organizations or individuals trading goods or services sell goods or provide services through a third party;

h) Where they force consumers to comply with obligations even if the organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services have not fulfilled their obligations;

i) Where they allow organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to transfer rights and obligations to third parties without the consumer’s consent.

2. Declaration and settlement of the invalid terms of contracts concluded with consumers or invalid general trading conditions must comply with civil laws.

Article 17. Implementation of form-based contracts

1. When signing the form-based contract, organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services must give reasonable time for consumers to consider the contract.

2. Organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services must keep the concluded form-based contract until the contract expires. Where contract kept by consumer is lost or damaged, the organization or individual trading goods or services shall take responsibility for give consumer a copy of the contract.

Article 18. Implementation of general trading conditions

1. Organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services using the general trading conditions shall be obliged to publicly announce the general trading conditions prior to the transaction with the consumer.

2. The general trading condition must specify the time of application and must be listed at a convenient place within the location of transaction in order that consumers can see it.

Article 19. Control of form-based contract and of general trading conditions

1. Organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services in the List of essential goods and services issued by the Prime Minister must register the form-based contract and general conditions for transactions with competent state management agencies with respect to protecting the interests of consumers.

2. State administration bodies have authority on protecting the interests of consumers themselves, or at the request of consumers, require organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to cancel or modify the form-based contract or general trading conditions in a case where the form-based contract or general trading condition is found to violate the interests of consumers.

3. The Government shall specify this Article.

Article 20. Responsibility to provide evidence of transaction

1. Organizations or individuals trading goods or services are obliged to offer consumer bills or vouchers and documents relating to transactions under the provisions of law or requested by consumers.

2. In the case of transactions by electronic means, the organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services shall create conditions for consumers to access, download, store and print invoices, vouchers, documents provided in clause 1 of this article.

Article 21. Responsibility for warranty for goods, components and accessories Goods, components or accessories are guaranteed by the agreement of the parties or guaranteed compulsorily under provisions of laws. Where goods, components or accessories are warranted, organizations or individuals trading goods shall:

1. Fully comply with warranty obligations for goods, components or accessories supplied by them;

2. Provide consumers with the receipt of the warranty, clearly stating the duration of the warranty. The period for implementation of the warranty is not included in the warranty duration for the goods, components and accessories. Where organizations or individuals trading goods replace components, accessories or exchange commodities, such warranty duration for components, accessories or goods are calculated from the time of replacing components, accessories or of exchanging new commodity;

3. Provide consumer with similar goods, components or accessories for temporary use or provide other forms of settlement accepted by consumers during implementation of the warranty;

4. Exchange new similar goods, components or accessories or take back goods, components or accessories and return money to consumers in the case where time for warranty implementation run out while failing to repair or solve the error.

5. Exchange new similar goods, components or accessories, or take back the goods give money back to consumers in the case where the warranty is implemented 03 times or more within the warranty duration as to goods, components or accessories without fixing the error;

6. Bear the cost of repairs and bear freight to transport goods, components or accessories to the place of warranty, and freight to transport them from the place of warranty to the residence of the consumer;

7. Be Responsible for the warranty of goods, components or accessories to consumers even in the event of authorizing other organizations or individuals to perform the warranty.

Article 22. Responsibility for recalling defective goods

Upon detection of defective goods, organizations or individuals manufacturing or importing the goods shall:

1. Promptly take all necessary measures to stop the supply of defective goods in the market;

2. Inform publicly about the defective goods and the recovery of the goods by at least 05 consecutive issues of daily newspaper or 05 consecutive days through the radio or television in area where such goods are circulated with the following details:

a) Description of the goods to be recovered;

b) Reasons for recovery of the goods and warning on the risk of damage caused by the defects of the goods;

c) Time, place and way of recovery of the goods;

d) Time and mode of overcoming the defects of the goods;

e) The measures necessary to protect the interests of consumers in the course of recovery of the goods;

3. Implementation of the recovery of the defective goods in line with the publicly-informed content and bear the expenses incurred in the recalling process;

4. Reporting the results to the provincial state management agency for the protection of consumers’ interests where the recovery of the defective goods take place after completion of the recall, in the case where the recall of the defective goods is conducted on the territories of two or more provinces, the results shall be reported to the central state management agencies for the protection of consumers' interests.

Article 23. Liability for compensation for damage caused by defective goods

1. Organizations or individuals trading goods shall be liable for damages in the case where defective goods, which supplied by them, cause damages to life, health, properties of consumers, even if the defects are not known to or not caused by those organizations or individuals, except as provided in Article 24 of this Laws.

2. Organizations or individuals trading in goods as defined in clause 1 of this article include:

a) Organizations or individuals producing goods;

b) Organizations or individuals importing goods;

c) Organizations or individuals attaching trade name to goods or using trademark or commercial instruction, by which organizations or individuals producing or importing goods are identified;

d) Organizations or individuals directly providing defective goods to consumers in case of failure to identify organizations or individuals responsible for damages prescribed in Points a, b and c of this Clause.

3. The compensation complies with civil laws.

Article 24. Exemption from liability for damage caused by defective goods

Organizations or individuals trading goods specified in Article 23 of this Law shall be exempt from compensation if they can prove that the defects of the good could not be detected with the scientific and technical knowledge at the time organizations or individuals trading goods supplied the defective good to consumers.

Article 25. Requirement of state management agencies to protect consumers’ interests

1. Upon discovering that violations of laws on protection of consumers’ interests by organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services cause damage to the interests of the State, the interests of many consumers, public interest, the consumers, social organizations may request verbally or in writing to the State management agency on protection of consumers’ interests of the district where the transaction take place to handle.

2. Consumers or social organizations are obliged to provide information and evidence related to violations of organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services.

Article 26. Resolving the request to protect consumers’ interests

1. Upon receipt of the request of consumers, the district-level state management agencies for protection of the interests of consumers shall request the parties to explain and provide information, evidence or by themselves verify and collect information and evidence to deal with as prescribed by law.

2. District-level state management agencies for protection of the interests of consumers shall respond in writing with respect to their resolution to the consumers; in the case where organizations or individuals trading goods services are found to violate the interests of consumers, a written reply must contain the following:

a) The violation behaviors;

b) Measure to overcome the consequences;

c) The duration for applying the measure of overcoming the consequences;

d) Measures for handling administrative violations, if any.

3. Remedies for overcoming the consequences prescribed in Point b, Clause 2 of this Article include:

a) Forcing organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to withdraw and destroy goods or stop supplying goods or services;

b) Suspending or suspending temporarily the business activities of the violating organizations or individuals;

c) Forcing organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to eliminate provisions that violate the interests of consumers from the form-based contract, general trading conditions.

4. In addition to the measures specified in Clause 3 of this Article, re-violating organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services may also be introduced to the List of organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services violating customers' interests.

5. The Government shall specify this Article.