The consumer rights protection in passenger car purchase and sale contracts: the law enforcement analysis

Introduction: the private law protection of consumer interests in modern trade relations is represented by a wide range of various tools that allow consumers to adequately protect their rights and restore justice. At the same time, the specifics of trade relations, whose subject is a passenger car intended for use for personal household purposes, and having the characteristics of a complex technical product, in some cases, due to the technical and legal illiteracy of the consumer, put consumers in a less favorable position as the least protected party. The purpose of the study is to identify current trends in judicial protection and self-defense of the rights of consumers as a party to the contract of purchase and sale of passenger cars. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which the main ones are analysis, synthesis, generalization, and comparative jurisprudence. Results: the study analyzes the law enforcement materials over the past 2-3 years, identifies a cluster of the most relevant court proceedings arising from the protection of consumer rights when selling passenger cars (the disputes about setting deadlines for which it is impossible to use a passenger car for its intended purpose due to the need for repair work, the disputes about the conditions, the place and time of the technical inspection and maintenance of the car). The author expressed his opinion about the potential possibilities of using interactive information platforms to verify information about a product as a means of self-protection of consumer rights when buying and selling cars. Conclusions: the author insists on using a “flexible” approach in the field of application of the legislative norms when setting the deadlines for technical / repair work to eliminate malfunctions, and to count the entire period of the car’s stay on the territory of the service station within the specified period (currently, the judicial practice has taken the path of setting off only the time of the actual labor costs for repair work in the specified period according to the working schedule at the service enterprise). The author supports the position of the courts, which does not attach exceptional importance to the place and time of warranty repair and maintenance, and the protection of the interests of the consumer is not conditioned by the imperative requirements implanted in the service book. In the field of self-protection of the rights of car buyers, the author recommends wider use of the modern information platforms presented on the official websites of the state agencies, and the information obtained from these interactive platforms should be supported by the contract itself as its integral part.