Consumer Rights in the European Area

The topic approached belongs to the always new field of consumer protection. In Europe, the consumer protection movement spread mainly after World War II. In Romania, this happened only after the fall of the communist regime. In this context, consumer protection belongs to recent history, and research in this field has only begun. Therefore, there is a need for proper information about consumer rights and obligations, for comprehensive knowledge about the regulations of the field, for awareness and use of the mechanisms through which the consumers whose rights have been violated can act in order to solve their complaints. This is only a step towards the optimisation of the consumers’ knowledge and their transformation into informed and active buyers within society, and implicitly the reduction of risks related to marketing abuse and social injustice. Moreover, in the circumstances of Romania’s accession to the EU and keeping in mind the European Commission’s and the European Parliament’s constant interest in consumer protection, it is necessary to correlate national policies with the priorities established at the European level.