Act No. 36/2008 Coll., amending certain acts in the consumer protection area, took effect on 12 February 2008. This act amended, among others, Act No. 6/1993 Coll., on the Czech National Bank (the CNB Act) and Act No. 634/1992 Coll., on Consumer Protection (the Consumer Protection Act) and gave the Czech National Bank (CNB) new powers in the area of consumer protection. Under these powers, the CNB accepts suggestions, complaints and notifications.

What you should know before filing a complaint, suggestion or notification:

What are the CNB’s powers in the area of consumer protection?

The CNB supervises compliance with the following consumer protection rules:

• Prohibition of unfair commercial practices.
  The Consumer Protection Act defines an unfair commercial practice as conduct of a trader towards a consumer that is contrary to the requirements of professional diligence and is capable of materially affecting the consumer’s decision-making, thereby causing him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise. Such practices are prohibited.
  Note: The European Community has launched a website http://isitfair.eu containing practical information (in all languages of the European Community) for consumers about how to determine whether they have fallen victim to unfair commercial practices. This covers consumers’ rights and traders’ practices in all areas of life, not just in the financial market area.
• Prohibition of consumer discrimination.
  Under the Consumer Protection Act, sellers may not discriminate against consumers in the provision of services. Generally, discrimination means intentional or negligent differentiation, exclusion, restriction or preference on discriminatory grounds.
• Duties and rules for providing information about the prices of services and how those prices are set. The seller has the duty to inform the consumer about the prices of services provided or to make such information appropriately available in some other way.
• Duties laid down in the Civil Code regarding distance contracts for financial services.
  This concerns contracts concluded using means of distance communication (telephone, fax, e-mail or the internet). Although this method of communication is consumer-friendly, the opportunity to gain information is more limited than when dealing with a financial services provider. The Civil Code thus specifies in detail the scope of information that must be provided.

However, the CNB may supervise consumer protection only in entities it is obliged to supervise under the CNB Act or in entities licensed under special regulations (the Foreign Exchange Act).

This means the following entities in particular:

• banks and branches of foreign banks;
• credit unions;
• investment firms;
• investment intermediaries;
• insurance companies;
• pension funds;
• insurance intermediaries;
• independent loss adjusters;
• bureaux de change;
• some other financial institutions

Which entities does the CNB not supervise?

The CNB cannot engage in consumer protection activity in respect of entities that operate on the financial market but are not subject to CNB supervision. Such entities include leasing companies, non-bank providers of consumer credit, financial advisers, etc. Supervision of consumer protection is performed in such cases by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority.

However, the CNB’s powers to supervise compliance with consumer protection law in supervised entities are also limited to cases concerning financial market activities, i.e. activities due to which the entity is subject to CNB supervision. Supervision of other activities would be against the spirit of the law (e.g. the operation of a car park by an insurance company).

What happens after you file a submission?

The CNB has the following consumer protection supervision duties with regard to the aforementioned entities operating in the financial market:

• to accept and investigate submissions by consumers and their associations;
• to supervise compliance with statutory duties;
• to remove immediate threats to the consumer’s property by stopping the provision of services or by closing the premises;
• to impose corrective measures and penalties.

Procedure for filing complaints:

The CNB Consumer Protection Department accepts consumers’ submissions in writing, by e-mail or via a web form (at present in available Czech only).

Contact:

Czech National Bank
Consumer Protection Department
Na Příkopě 28
115 03 Praha 1
e-mail: spotrebitel@cnb.cz
tel: 224414359(2887)
fax: 224412261

Detailed contact information available in Czech only

What your submission should contain:

• your name, surname and address
• to what (whom) your submission relates – the name of the relevant institution
• the subject-matter of your submission
• copies of all available documents (including correspondence) supporting your submission