Vasil Kisil & Partners defended a client in a dispute with State Consumer Rights Protection Inspectorate

Vasil Kisil & Partners defended the interests of a renowned importer of German power tools and thermotechnics in a dispute with the State Inspectorate of Ukraine for Consumers’ Rights Protection.The State Consumer Rights Protection Inspectorate believed that the products did not conform to the established requirements because the importer had failed to provide a full set of technical documentation for the products according to technical regulations (diagrams, drawings, descriptions, etc.) when the inspection of the products had been conducted.The State Consumer Rights Protection Inspectorate took restrictive measures in the course of the market surveillance and temporarily banned the sale of a large number of imported products.In addition, the company was subject to 4 fines, allegedly for placing on the market the products that did not comply with the technical regulations.

The client had to file four lawsuits to the circuit Administrative Court of Kiev, seeking the reversal of the controlling authority’s decisions to take the restrictive (corrective) measures and to impose the fines. All of the four lawsuits were satisfied and court decisions entered into force.

Associate of Vasil Kisil & Partners Vladyslav Podolyak, who provided legal support in the context of this complex project, proved in court that the proper quality and safety of the products were confirmed by the certificates of compliance and the declarations of conformity issued in respect of such products. The State Consumer Rights Protection Inspectorate groundlessly rejected these documents at the inspection stage, and further still, the conclusions on the non-conformity of the products to the established requirements were unfounded as they were made without any expert examination of product samples. The law also provides a list of actions and procedures to be followed by a market surveillance authority before taking a decision to apply any restrictive (corrective) measures and such decision must be preceded by a risk assessment of products and a risk assessment plan based thereon. The State Consumer Rights Protection Inspectorate neither performed any risk assessment nor prepared any risk assessment plan with respect to the products.