Protection of Consumer's Rights in Cross-Border Shopping by Distance

The advent of e-commerce revolution, which has still not reached the critical mass, has transformed the potential for integration of retail markets in the EU to give a major stimulus to competitiveness and expand the opportunities for the EU citizens. While the technological means are increasingly in place, business and consumer behaviour lags far behind, restrained respectively by internal market obstacles and a lack of confidence in cross-border shopping (Commission of the., 2007). The aim of the paper is to analyse the problems of consumer's rights protection when a number of cross-border sales by distance increases including shopping via the Internet. The study is based on the review of legislation, the European Commission documents, and literature. Descriptive method and secondary data analysis were applied in the study. The Commission's vision in frames of consumer policy is to be able to demonstrate to all EU citizens by 2013 that they are equally effectively protected. In the light of consumers' opinion about delivery and fraud, informing consumers and retailers on the consumers' rights are effective mechanisms to deal with cross-border fraud and effective ways to seek assistance if problems arise. Unfortunately, consumers' awareness about sources of information in cross-border shopping and consumers' rights is still low. Distinctions in the legislation also cause the problems when making cross-border purchases by distance. Besides, the European Consumer Centre (ECC) has no power for making a decision on the fulfilment of lawful demands of consumers.