CONSUMER EXTREMISM: POTENTIAL CRIMINAL LIABILITY

Within the framework of this article, the main aspects of consumer extremism are considered; the main directions of criminal liability in this type of offense are outlined. The problem of consumer extremism in the past few years has become the object of close attention by representatives of the business community. Strengthening consumer rights, toughening legal entities’ liability measures, and the presumption of the latter’s guilt give rise to many abuses on the part of buyers. At the same time, it is obvious that the focus of attention is precisely the malicious abuse of rights, when the purchase and sale transaction is a source of benefit for the consumer. Currently, there are virtually no tools for legal protection of the seller from consumer extremism, which poses a significant threat to the business environment and its development. It should be noted that the concept of consumer extremism is still absent in the legal field; this is one of the main reasons for the absence of protective mechanisms. Art. 10 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in 2012 for the first time outlined the essence of “abuse of law”, which currently underlies the existing tools of protection against consumer extremism. However, the key problem is that, in fact, the consumer is not responsible for the losses incurred by the legal entity in case of their unlawful claims. The problem of provability of offenses in the field of consumer extremism is based on the statement about the intention of unlawful actions, while in the context of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights, this aspect seems to be difficult to prove. Acting as a threat to the economic security of economic agents in the legal field, it is necessary to develop effective measures of criminal liability for consumer extremism, which is the subject of this article.

consumer extremism, consumer rights protection law, abuse of law, criminal liability, fraud, property damage, breach of trust, deception, consumer, administrative law.

Fayzrakhmanov R. R. Consumer extremism: potential criminal liabilitY. Business. Education. Law, 2021, no. 3, pp. 295—299. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2021.56.360.