The Role of the product quality guarantee in promoting sustainable consumption: Lithuanian experience
ENIn general terms, “the concept of sustainable consumption encompasses the use of services and products designed to meet the basic needs of the consumer and the environmental impact of the products or services consumed” (Navickaitė and Novikovienė 2020). The universally accepted concept of sustainable consumption was formulated at the 1994 Oslo Symposium on Sustainable Consumption, which defined sustainable consumption as “the use of services and products designed to meet basic needs and to create a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources and the use of toxic substances, and the emissions of waste and pollutants throughout the lifecycle of a product or service, without compromising the needs of future generations” (Ofstad 1994). Today, the importance of sustainable consumption is being recognized at both the transnational and national levels, and, over time, individual consumers are also changing their attitudes towards excessive consumption. However, as I. Navickaitė and L. Novikovienė (2020) point out, “it should be noted that consumers’ interest in environmental issues and their commitment to living more responsibly while protecting the environment do not mean that they will buy green, environmentally friendly products. The reasons for this may vary, but can include mistrust of companies’ environmental claims or lack of information. (…). Therefore, a big role in the development of sustainable consumption is played by the entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards environmentally friendly business models and the promotion of sustainable consumption. Responsible use of sales promotion measures such as advertising, fair commercial conduct, fair consumer information, labelling, etc., play an important role in the development of sustainable consumption”). For a long time, consumption has been seen as a tool for economic growth.The working principle of a market economy is simple: the more consumers buy, the more the economy grows. Therefore, the traditional aim has been to get consumers to buy more products and to keep replacing old items with new ones. Over time, wasteful consumption has created a global problem, with current production and consumption needs far outstripping existing natural resources. James P. Leape, Director-General of the World Wide Fund for Nature, stated in the 2008 WWF report, as our population grows and we continue to consume resources at an alarming rate, we’ll need the equivalent of a second Earth by 2030 to maintain our current lifestyle (WWF 2008). In this context, the objective of ensuring that both producers and consumers receive the same or even a greater quantity of products and services at a lower cost has obviously become increasingly relevant. Various public opinion surveys show that the majority of consumers support the ideas of sustainable consumption. According to a Eurobarometer survey, 77 % of EU citizens would rather repair their devices than replace them. A survey on consumer attitudes towards durability, repairability and recycling conducted by the European Commission showed that while consumers are willing to repair their items, they usually have to replace them with new ones due to the high cost of repair (European Commission 2018). It is no less important that sustainable consumption is promoted through legal instruments and that the norms protecting consumers’ rights reflect the rights of consumers who choose sustainable consumption. They should not only ensure the provision of information to consumers leading to the choice of a higher quality, more sustainable product, the provision of the possibility to assess the production technology of products, and the provision of legal guarantees relating to product quality, but also the provision of legal remedies in the event of a breach of consumer rights.Today, we must realize that sustainable consumption is inevitable, and therefore consumer protection rules must reconcile the general objectives of consumer protection with the objectives of sustainable consumption. Only when consumers know that their rights are protected – not only as purchasers of new goods, but also as consumers who choose sustainable consumption – will they be confident in making sustainable choices. Obviously, the law has various instruments that can contribute to the promotion of sustainable consumption, one of which is the product quality guarantee, which, in the case of new products, creates a consumer’s reasonable expectation that the longer the guarantee, the longer the lifetime of the product, and, in the case of second-hand equipment and second-hand products, the assurance that the product will not have hidden defects. For two decades, the guarantee of the quality of consumer goods has been regulated at the EU level by Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees. On 20 May 2019, Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects of contracts for the sale of goods, amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC and repealing Directive 1999/44/EC (hereinafter referred to as Directive 2019/771 or the Sale of Goods Directive), was adopted. Directive 2019/771 also addresses the need to make goods more durable, which is seen as important for more sustainable consumption patterns and the circular economy. [Extract, p. 169-170]
