Issues of consumer rights protection were considered today at the meeting of the Government chaired by the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov and Minister of Healthcare Yelzhan Birtanov reported on the measures taken.

According to the information provided by state and local executive bodies, in the first half of 2017 more than 19 thousand consumer appeals were considered. According to the appeals, 287 administrative cases were initiated.

"The analysis of the received appeals shows that Kazakhstan consumers do not know their rights and have a poor idea of ​​when and whom to contact," Timur Suleimenov reported.

The Minister of National Economy noted that the extremely low level of consumer protection is observed in the dynamically developing sphere of electronic commerce.

"In the field of e-commerce, we propose to introduce a mechanism for registering entities that carry out the electronic sale of goods and blocking websites that systematically violate consumers' rights," Timur Suleimenov said.

On the proposal of the National Consumer League, the Coordination Council for the Protection of Consumer Rights was established. The Ministry of National Economy proposes to empower the authorized body to monitor compliance with consumer protection legislation.

Minister of Healthcare Yelzhan Birtanov reported on the measures taken to ensure the safety requirements and noted that the Ministry was conducting monitoring aimed at identifying and preventing violations of the requirements of regulatory and legal acts in the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population, hygienic standards and technical regulations.

"Within the framework of the cameral control, 50 unscrupulous participants in foreign economic activity were identified, which were imported under the conditional release of more than 52,000 commodity items, while only 146 items were declared and certified. The data of the participants in foreign economic activity were brought to administrative responsibility, the materials were transferred to the court," Yelzhan Birtanov said.

Comparative analysis shows that the greatest percentage of all non-conforming products traded on the domestic market of the country is imported products - 67.3%, domestic producers' products accounted for 32.7%.

Following the issue consideration, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of National Economy to revise the mechanism for monitoring compliance with the legislation on consumer rights protection - it is necessary to avoid the principle of "control over inspectors".

Bakytzhan Sagintayev noted that the rights of consumers are being violated because of the low level of awareness. In this regard, the Ministry of Healthcare has been instructed to inform the public about products that do not meet the safety requirements for human life and health.