CORELAȚIA EXISTENTĂ ÎNTRE REGLEMENTAREA CONCURENȚEI ȘI REGLEMENTAREA PRIVIND PROTECȚIA CONSUMATORILOR

The author discusses the close correlation between the regulation of competition and the regulation on the protection of the consumers’ interests, involving some difficulties in distinguishing between them. That is why there is the tendency that some regulations protect both the ensuring of competition and the consumers’ interests, this ambivalence emphasizing the importance that is given in the contemporary society to the consumption law, which justifies a whole series of derogations from the principle of freedom of trade. Discussing this issue involves an examination of both the regulation of the contractual obligations and the regulation of the commercial practices. The consumer who wants to purchase a product usually has a double handicap: knows too little the characteristics of the product that is being offered and, as such, is often in the position to sign a previously elaborated contract which he can not control or understand. So it was necessary the intervention of the legislator, imposing the obligation to inform every consumer, being prohibited to stipulate unfair terms. As far as the regulation of the commercial practices is concerned, the same conclusion is drawn, namely that a consumer is exposed to a double risk: that of being deceived about the nature or the characteristics of the goods which it acquires, as well as that of being incited, by fictitious or illusory promises, to buy or to resort to the supply of a service. Consequently, the legislator has stepped in by elaborating regulations both in relation to the illegal commercial practices and with regard to the commercial publicity. The author of this article presents all these aspects having in view the scale of the legal situations that can arise and the required solutions.