Informative Session: Empowerment and protection of consumers through information and awareness, 25 January 2023 Korçë

On January 25, 2023, an info-session on Information and Consumer Protection took place in Korça, implemented in the framework of the project “Information to Action – Strengthening the role of CSOs in Albania on Consumer Protection”. The topic of this session was “Empowerment and protection of consumers through information and awareness” where with the participation of civil society actors, representatives of universities and local institutions, experts and young activists, there was a discussion on consumer protection in Albania and the role that local state institutions should play.

The activity started with an opening speech by Nirvana Deliu, Project Coordinator at EMA, who gave an overview of the project that is being implemented and how important it is for further development of consumer rights and protection in Albania. The main objective of these sessions is definitely to inform and make consumers aware of their rights. However, a specific aim is to involve state institutions and enhance their cooperation with civil society organizations.

Afterwards Armand Braho, activist and leader of the Youth Academy, Pogradec, emphasized the importance that such a project has, especially in empowering consumers, informing young activists in this field, and promoting dialogue with groups of interest. From his experience, Braho has observed that consumer rights in Albania are treated as inconsequential, this is also a result of the lack of capacities in the local authorities to handle these matters. Moreover, he also mentioned cases that consumers have effectively protected themselves in several situations because they were aware of their rights being violated and knew the procedures to follow.

The last presentation was held by Granit Sokolaj, journalist and director of the ALERT Center, who focused especially on the legislation, procedures and institutions where consumers can and should contact in case of violation of their rights. Sokolaj then continued by sharing several cases of complaints that ALERT Center helped consumers to resolve, reflecting that often merchants are uncooperative to make reparations for the consumer. He emphasized the importance of consumers exercising their right to file a complaint in case of rights violation, as it will help in educating the market in regards to this matter. However, the main problem remains the lack of state authorities and that there are no concrete measures to address the problems in this field. Therefore, it is essential to raise awareness among consumers on these topics, making use of the media, which should dedicate more space to report issues related to consumers’ protection.

The session was concluded with an open discussion, where it was deliberated about consumer rights issues within the expanding e-commerce. Currently in Albania there are over 3000 online profiles operating as retailers. Among the participants there were experts of the field who shared with those present some practical tips to distinguish safe online vendors, such as the communication, the existence of business data, issuing a coupon in case of purchase, as a guarantee for consumers. It was also mentioned that the protection of consumer rights should find more applicability in practice, with tangible results to increase the confidence of consumers themselves.