Contents
Article 4.State’s Policy on Consumer Protection
Article 5.Basic Principles of Consumer Protection
Article 6.Duty to Perform the Consumer Protection
Article 7.Scope of Application of Law.
Article 8.International Cooperation
Chapter 1:Types of Consumer Protection
Article 9.Types of Consumer Protection
Article 10.The Protection of Consumption of Goods
Article 11.The Protection of Consumption of Services
Chapter 2 :Production, Import, Selling of Goods and Services
Article 12.Production of Goods
Article 13.Import, Selling, Distribution of Goods and Services
Article 15.Permission for Advertisement
Article 16.Modification of Advertising
Article 17.Access to Information
Chapter 4:Labels and Contracts
Article 18.Label controlled goods
Article 19.Descriptions of Label
Article 20.Modification of Label controlled goods
Part III :Administrative Organizations for Consumer Protection.
Chapter 1:Administrative Organizations for Consumer Protection.
Article 22.Administrative Organizations for Consumer Protection.
Article 23.Industry and Commerce Sector
Article 25.Forestry and Agriculture Sector
Article 26.Science and Technology Sector
Article 27.Rights and Duties of the Organizations for Consumer Protection
Article 29.Consumer Protection Officers
Chapter 2 :Consumer Protection Association
Article 30.Functions and Roles of Consumer Protection Association
Article 31.Rights and Obligations of Consumer Protection Association
Part IV :Rights and Responsibilities of Consumers and Suppliers
Chapter 1:Rights and Responsibilities of Consumers.
Article 32.Rights of Consumers.
Article 33.Responsibilities of Consumers.
Chapter 2: Rights and Responsibilities of Suppliers.
Article 34.Rights of Suppliers.
Article 35.Responsibilities of Suppliers.
Part V Settlement of Disputes.
Chapter 1:Settlement of Disputes.
Article 36.Principles of Settlement of Disputes.
Article 37.Means of Settlement of Disputes.
Article 39.Records of Conciliations.
Article 41.Principles of Mediations.
Article 43.Timelines of Mediations.
Article 44.The Contents of the Mediation Records/Agreement6
Article 45.Implementation of Mediation Agreements.
Article 46.Procedure to Implement the Mediation Agreements.
Article 47.Cancellation of the Mediation Agreement
Chapter 4 Administrative Means by the Organizations for Consumer Protection. 17
Article 48.Administrative Means.
Article 49.The Procedure for the Submissions of Requests
Article 50.Timelines of Address of Requests by Consumers.
Article 51.Scope of Authority to Solve the Requests.
Article 53.Settlement of Disputes by the Organization of Economic Disputes Settlement
Article 54.Settlement of Disputes by the People’s Courts.
Article 55.Settlement of Disputes related to Private International Laws.
Article 56.Prohibitions on Officers or Personnel
Article 57.Prohibitions on Consumers.
Article 58.Prohibitions on Suppliers.
Article 59.Prohibitions on Individuals and Organizations.
Part VII :Administration and Inspection on Consumer Protection Activities.
Chapter 1 :Administration of Consumer Protection Activities.
Article 60.Organizations for Administration of Consumer Protection Activities.
Chapter 2 :Inspection on Consumer Protection.
Article 62.Inspection Agencies for Consumer Protection.
Article 63.The Substantive Inspection.
Article 64.Forms of Inspection.
Part VIII:Policies Forward Persons With Outstanding Achievement and Measures Against Violators.
Article 65.Policies Forward Persons with Outstanding Achievement
Article 66.Measures Against Violators.
Article 67.Re-education Measures.
Article 68.Disciplines Measure.
Article 72.Additional Measures.
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Peace Independence Democracy Unity Prosperity
National Assembly No. 02/NA
Vientiane Capital, Dated 30 June 2010
Law on Consumer Protection
The Law on Consumer Protection defines the principles and measures to organize, administrate and inspect and monitor the activities of consumer protection in order to strengthen these activities ensuring the legitimate interests, [and] the safety of the consumers from the negative impacts as result of consumptions of goods and services; to promote the domestic production, import [and] distribution of goods and services to produce quality goods and services, to meet the standards, [and] to conduct properly in accordance with regulations and laws; aiming at maintaining of the justice, peace and public orders of society to improve the standard of living of the people, contributing to the national socio-economic development.
The consumer protection means the application of the principles and measures to protect the health, assets, legitimate rights and interests of consumer as result from the impacts of consumptions of goods and services such as foods, medicines, cosmetics, heath treatments, including the settlement of disputes between the consumers and supplier as provide for in regulations and laws.
The terms used in this law shall have the meanings ascribed below:
The State encourages the consumer protection by defining the regulations and laws, providing educations, recruiting the personnel, allocating the budget, providing the materials to an organization which is responsible for carrying out the consumer protection activities in order to create the conditions supporting the organization to perform its activities effectively, ensuring the safety of the life, health, property, legal rights and benefits of the consumers.
The State encourages all sectors in society, individuals, legal entities, and domestic and foreign organizations to contribute to the consumer protection activities.
The consumer protection shall be conducted based on the following principles:
Lao citizens, foreign residents, apatrids residing in the Lao PDR have duty to respect, implement this law and other relevant laws, including the facilitation, providing of the information and cooperation with the consumer protection officers while they are performing their functions and duties.
This law applies to individuals, legal entities including the domestic and foreign organization that produce, import, sell, and distribute the goods and services which are licensed and registered their business entities; and the consumers in Lao PDR.
For those suppliers that not registered their business entities are applied by other law.
The State promotes the international relation and cooperation in relation to the protection of rights and benefits of consumer by exchanging lessons, information, sciences, technology and trainings, upgrading the technical capacity in order to perform those activities effectively and implement the international agreements and conventions which the Lao PDR is the party to.
Consumer Protection is categorized into two types as follows:
- The protection of consumption of goods;
- The protection of consumption of services.
The protection of consumption of goods means use of the measures to unable the consumers to utilize the quality and standard goods as defined by the relevant organizations, without negative impacts on life, health, property, legitimate rights and interests of the consumers and environment.
The protection of consumption of goods means use of the measures to unable the consumers to be rendered the quality and standard services as defined by the relevant organizations and sound fair.
Production of goods must conduct in accordance with the criteria, standards and principles strictly as define by the relevant sectors in order to avoid the contamination, danger of the improperly production of goods, aims at ensuring of safety of the life, health, property, rights, benefits of the consumers and environment.
Import, selling, and distribution of goods and rendering of services must comply with the requirements, standards and approval by the relevant sectors in accordance with the laws strictly in order to ensure the quality, safety, quick, reasonable price and without unfair treatment to consumers.
The advertising must conducted in the following principles:
- ensuring that the context of advertisement is precisely, presenting the true on the category, type, characteristics, quality of the goods, trademarks and services;
- ensuring the providing of sufficient information about the goods and services;
- ensuring that the advertisement shall not satirize, look down the goods and services of others.
The advertisement can be conducted in all forms such as billboard advertising, through the media.
An individual, entity and organization intending to advertise the goods and service must seek the approval from the committee for consumer protection in accordance with the laws.
The contents and contexts of the advertisement on goods and service shall be in accordance with the regulations and laws as provides for by the relevant sectors.
Where it deems that any advertising is untrue bringing impact on the benefits of the consumers the relevant officers for consumer protection must notify the supplier who is conducting that advertisement to stop the advertising and modify the statement of advertising to be accurate prior continuation of such advertisement.
In order to facilitate the consumers to access to information, acknowledge, and understand about the goods and services that are dangerous, the consumer protection organization or suppliers must inform such information in various forms through the media, billboard advertising as follows:
Expenses on the examination, re-testing of the goods and services, the notification about the dangerous of the goods and services through media and billboard advertising are under responsibilities of the suppliers.
The goods which are manufactured for sale in the country and imported for sell and consumption in the Lao PDR must be label controlled goods particularly the goods that have risks to life, health and safety of the consumers.
The label of a label controlled goods must be in Lao language. For the imported goods, the label in Lao Language must be also affixed.
The label controlled goods must contain of the following descriptions:
If it is deemed that any goods is not labelled or its descriptions of label is incorrect and insufficient as its benefits and characteristic of that good the officers for consumer protection must inform the supplier to suspend its import, distribution and modify the label correctly and accordingly prior continuation of import and distribution.
In the course of the business activities on any type of goods and services, the suppliers and consumers must conclude the contracts in accordance with the law on the contractual and non-contractual obligations and must perform the contracts fully, accordingly and timely.
The governmental administrative organizations for consumer protection from the central to the local levels comprise of the key sectors as follows:
The organization structures and the personnel of the organization for consumer protection are regulated in the special regulation separately.
In the course of implementing the consumer protection activities, the industry and commerce sector has the centrally leading role to coordinate and cooperate with the relevant sectors and has responsibility focusing on the industrial and commercial fields related to the manufacturing, marketing, price and services including but not limited to other fields that are under responsibilities of other sectors.
In the course of implementing the consumer protection activities, the health sector has responsibility focusing on the health care and treatment fields related to the foods and medicines, medical equipment and services in health care and treatment.
In the course of implementing the consumer protection activities, the forestry and agriculture sector has responsibility to focus on the forestry and agriculture fields related to the fertilizers manufacturing, and using of the chemical substances in the agriculture, using of the chemical insecticide, animal medicines, foods, agricultural products, seeds, breeding, agricultural equipment and machinery.
In the course of implementing the consumer protection activities, the science and technology sector has responsibility to focus on the scientific activities, technology, quality, standards, measures, weight, and intellectual property.
The administrative organizations for consumer protection have the following rights and duties:
In the implementing the consumer protection activities, the other sectors have their responsibilities to implement the law in accordance with their functions, rights and duties.
Consumer protection officers are the governmental personnel which are appointed by the ministers of relevant organizations for consumer protection.
The function, rights and duties of the consumer protection officers are defined in special regulation separately.
The consumer protection association is the civil and non-profitable organization created by law, has the functions and roles to assist, provide the advices, and suggestions and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the consumers.
The organization and activities of the consumer protection association are defined separately.
The consumer protection association has the following rights and obligations:
The consumer shall have the following rights:
The consumer has the following responsibilities:
The suppliers have the following rights:
The Suppliers have the following responsibilities:
The settlement of consumer protection disputes must be applied the principles as follows:
- Correctly and in accordantly on the regulations and laws;
- Equality;
- Transparency and fairness;
- Speedy.
The disputes between the consumer and supplier can be settled through any of the following means:
In case there is a dispute between the consumers and suppliers, the parties to dispute shall endeavour to resolve that dispute through the consultations and conciliations in accordance with the following steps:
The consumers and suppliers must make the records of the conciliation in writing, unless agreed otherwise.
A party to dispute has obligations to perform in accordance with the records or agreements in the course of such conciliation.
When there is a dispute between the consumers and suppliers, the party to dispute has right to purpose:
The mediations must undertake in accordance with the following principles:
The organizations for consumer protection shall establish the mediation units which comprise of three to five personnel and have duties to mediate the disputes between the consumers and suppliers under their responsibilities.
The consumer protection association can also conduct the mediation if agreed by the consumers and suppliers as the party to dispute.
The mediation shall undertake the following timelines:
The records of the mediations must have the following substantive contents:
The mediation agreement must be implemented as follows:
The mediation agreement must be conducted as follows:
When it is deems that the mediation is violated the principles as provided for in Article 41 of this law and this makes a party to dispute loose its benefits, such party to dispute has right to request on cancellation of mediation agreement to relevant organizations for consumer protection.
Within five days from receiving of the request on cancellation of mediation agreement, the organization for consumer protection must make its decision to cancel or not cancel that mediation agreement and inform its reasons to the parties to dispute.
When there is a dispute between the consumers and suppliers, the party to dispute has right to request to the organizations for consumer protection or relevant sectors to consider the settlement of dispute through the administrative means in accordance with regulations and laws.
The submissions of the requests for the settlement of disputes through the administration means must undertake in the following procedure:
- Evidence on the selling-buying with suppliers;
- Evidence on act showing that suppliers have breached the contracts;
The damaged suppliers also have right to submit the requests.
The timelines for address of requests by the consumers are as follows:
The organizations for consumer protection have the power to consider the following requests:
The decisions on the requests in the case that the suppliers breach the contracts can be rendered as follows:
The decisions on the requests in the case that the suppliers have not breached the contracts shall be rendered to adopt such requests.
The decisions by the suppliers shall be rendered in the same principles as mention above.
When there is a dispute between the consumers and suppliers, the party to dispute has right to request to the organization of economic disputes settlement to resolve the dispute in accordance with the laws and mutual agreement by the parties to dispute.
When there is a dispute between the consumers and suppliers, the party to dispute has right to bring the legal action to the people’s court for consideration and adjudication by laws.
The disputes on the consumer protection that have the public international law’s elements shall be settled in accordance with the laws of the Lao PDR or the agreements or the conventions which the Lao PDR is a Party to.
The consumer protection officers or personnel are prohibited to act as follows:
The consumers are prohibited to act as follows:
Article 58.Prohibitions on suppliers
The suppliers are prohibited to act as follows:
The individuals and organizations are prohibited to act as follows:
The Government uniformly administrates the consumer protection activities throughout the country and delegates the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to be the central authority to coordinate and cooperate with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the National Science and Technology Administration, and other relevant sectors and the local administrations.
The organizations for administration of consumer protection activities are the same organizations for consumer protection as provide for in Article 22 of this law.
The organizations for administration of the consumer protection activities have the following rights and duties:
The inspection agencies for consumer protection consist of:
The substantive inspections on consumer protection are as follows:
Inspection on consumer protection is undertaken in compliance with the following forms:
Regular inspection refers to an inspection performed regularly according to plans and at pre-determined times and shall take at least two times per an annual;
Inspection by advance notice refers to an inspection which is not included in the plan, which is performed when deemed necessary and for which advance notice is given at least twenty four hours.
Emergency inspection refers to a sudden inspection without advance notice to the person to be inspected.
Inspection can be conducted to view and inspect the documents and performance and conduct in the field.
Persons or organizations that are role models of active and effective participation in the implementation of this law will receive rewards or be granted policies as determined in detail by the government.
Persons or organizations violating this law or regulations on consumer protection shall be re-educated, disciplines, fined, civil or penal according to the nature of the violation.
Individuals or organizations intentionally violating this law or regulations on consumer protection particularly the minor prohibition provisions and at first will be subject to re-educated measure.
The civil servants or public officers, which have violated any of the provisions of the law and regulation on consumer protection and prohibitions [under this law] as minor offender, which is not the criminal offence; and cause the damage but had not reported, or attempted to escape of wrong doing; will be imposed any of following as determined on case by case basis:
An individual who had been imposed the said disciplines must return any property that acquired offensively to the organization properly and completely.
Individuals or organizations that are violated the law on consumer protection particularly violated non-criminal offence, and after had received warnings up to two times will be fined depending on the seriousness or natures of violation which are defined in separate regulation.
Individuals or organizations causing the damages to other people by supplied goods or services that are unqualified, under standard and other forms of civil matters must pay the compensation for damages caused.
An individual who had forced, abused of power, position, duties, and rights; received or offered bribes, adjusted the weight scales or measures equipment, falsify the documents, used the falsified documents, disclosed the confidential information for the individual benefits, manufactured, sold and distributed the prohibited goods and services that create the pollutions harmful to the environment seriously, to lives, and health, and properties of people greatly, and other acts related to the consumer protection that are criminal offences shall be subject to punishments in accordance with the penal law.
In addition to the measures as provide for in Articles 71 of this law, the violator of law may be subject to additional measures including order to suspension or cease of license, enterprise registration, and other certificates, nationalization of property or the profits gaining from the offences.
The government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic is to implement this law.
This law shall become effective after ninety days from the date of the promulgating decree of the President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Any provisions that contradict this law are repealed.
President of the National Assembly
Name | Description | Status |
---|---|---|
Requirement for consumer protection organisaitons to provide information on dangerous goods and services | Consumer protection organization or suppliers must provide information to consumers on goods and services that are dangerous. | Active |
Requirement for individuals and organizations to refrain from harmful conduct | Individuals and organizations are prohibited from engaging in various conduct that will harm consumers, including providing incorrect information about the quality, standard of the goods and services causing misunderstanding or discrediting suppliers | Active |
Requirement for suppliers to comply with law | Suppliers must meet various criteria, including ensuring compliance of goods and services with the law. | Active |
Requirement for suppliers to refrain from harmful conduct | Suppliers are prohibited from engaging in various conduct that will harm consumers, including advertising or providing unreal or incorrect information on goods and services | Active |
Requirement to receivepermission to advertise goods and services | An individual, entity and organization intending to advertise goods and service must get approval from the committee for consumer protection. The advertisement must comply with requirements imposed by relevant sectors. | Active |