Summary: 1. Introduction. – 2. Study Objectives. – 3. Literature Review. – 4. Research Methodology. – 5. Result and Discussion. – 6. Conclusions.
Background: This study aims to research, analyse and present the presence and consequences of consumer fraud in Kosovar society. It also focuses on the legal protection of consumers and on the treatment of their reactions through legal remedies, thereby clarifying their awareness of the rights defined by law. This study presents the most frequent violations of consumer rights, consumer fraud, the justifications for not resolving consumer complaints, the challenges Kosovo institutions face in handling consumer complaints, and the challenges Kosovo institutions face in respecting key EU directives.
Methods: To successfully achieve the study’s purpose and objectives, a specialised scientific research methodology will be applied. In this study, the following will be applicable: focus groups, historical-legal method, normative-legal method, statistical method and analysis method. The choice of a scientific research methodology like this was made to address consumer rights violations accurately and, in certain situations, consumer fraud. Although the fundamental discussion of the topic began with spontaneous focus groups, which represent social reality, the study goes beyond this. It is oriented towards treating the topic through the historical-legal method to examine the situation and the reactions in the past to the highlighted problem. Furthermore, the application of the normative-legal method is necessary to present the violation of consumer rights in a legal context, including cases of consumer fraud, with a view to incriminating such actions under the law. Meanwhile, the statistical method is extremely important because it presents the existing situation of violation of consumer rights, including cases of their fraud in society, while to analyse the problem highlighted in its entirety and throughout the study, the analysis method was used.
Methods: To successfully achieve the study’s purpose and objectives, a specialised scientific research methodology will be applied. In this study, the following will be applicable: focus groups, historical-legal method, normative-legal method, statistical method and analysis method. The choice of a scientific research methodology like this was made to address consumer rights violations accurately and, in certain situations, consumer fraud. Although the fundamental discussion of the topic began with spontaneous focus groups, which represent social reality, the study goes beyond this. It is oriented towards treating the topic through the historical-legal method to examine the situation and the reactions in the past to the highlighted problem. Furthermore, the application of the normative-legal method is necessary to present the violation of consumer rights in a legal context, including cases of consumer fraud, with a view to incriminating such actions under the law. Meanwhile, the statistical method is extremely important because it presents the existing situation of violation of consumer rights, including cases of their fraud in society, while to analyse the problem highlighted in its entirety and throughout the study, the analysis method was used.
Results and Conclusions: The findings of this study make it clear that violations of consumer rights, including consumer fraud, are widespread in Kosovar society. The results also show that the legal framework for consumer protection and the relevant mechanisms exist; however, there are delays in achieving adequate consumer protection. The results obtained make it clear that the level of consumer reaction to violations of their rights is increasing, and that the high prevalence of these violations in society is also worrying. Furthermore, the existence of an obscure number of consumer fraud cases makes the situation even more worrying.